PIDGEON WELCOMES GOVERNMENT CLIMBDOWN ON SCHOOL BUILD RED TAPE (Southwark Liberal Democrats)

Southwark Liberal Democrats <info@southwark-libdems.org.uk>

PIDGEON WELCOMES GOVERNMENT CLIMBDOWN ON SCHOOL BUILD RED TAPE

November 15, 2006 12:00 PM

Cllr Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Children's Services and Education, has welcomed the announcement by the Government that they are to looking to reduce the amount of red tape affecting school building programmes.

Cllr Pidgeon's comments follow the news that the Government has instructed auditors PWC to conduct a six month review of the Building Schools for the Future programme which has been running for three years. The review is due to concern from both local authorities and the private sector about the sheer cost of administration.

"Here in Southwark we are committed to the Building Schools for the Future Programme which will benefit most secondary and special schools in the borough," said Cllr Caroline Pidgeon. "But the national programme has been dogged with bureaucratic delay and red tape. We have been telling the Government for some time that an otherwise good scheme is being let down by delays."

"For each package of new schools, at least three consortia must produce detailed plans. These take lots of time and money. Ultimately, only one can be chosen and the work of the other two will be wasted. The costs of these wasted plans will, of course, ultimately come out of the overall budget for the scheme."

"We welcome this move to make the process as simple and cost-effective as possible. Put simply, we want to make sure that the proportion of this fund actually going into building schools is as high as possible."