£13.6bn boost for BSF funds

The £45bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme is set to swell by another £13.6bn next year.

Plans are being drawn-up to combine the £4.6bn Further Education capital programme, the £7bn Primary Capital Programme and the £2bn schools repairs programme under the umbrella of the BSF programme.

Local authorities will be allowed to roll their FE college, primary and minor repair works into their BSF schemes. All four capital programmes are expected to be brought under the control of Partnerships for Schools (PfS).

At the same time, local authorities will be encouraged to expand their schemes to include health, housing, regeneration and transport.

Education minister Jim Knight reinforced the policy at a PfS conference last week. He told delegates that schools will become community hubs "providing space for other services to be co-located, underpinned by a more joined-up approach to the capital investment across different sectors".

PfS chief executive Tim Byles also confirmed that he had met with officials from Communities for Health, which oversaw the NHS LIFT programme, the Highways Agency and the Communities and Local Government Department to talk about how to combine BSF schemes with health, transport and housing projects.

A DCSF spokesman said: "Local authorities will be able to apply to combine those various education funding streams."