Government must reconsider scrapping of school building in six council areas

The High Court said that the Secretary of State for Education acted "unlawfully and without justification" in ignoring the cases of six councils who lost out on funding under the cancelled Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

The £55 billion regeneration programme was scrapped in July last year, meaning that over 700 planned school rebuilding projects in England will not go ahead.

Education Secretary Michael Gove, must now reconsider his decision to the extent that it affects 58 schools in the six local authorities after giving each of them the opportunity to state their cases.

The coalition Government cancelled all BSF schemes that had not reached 'financial close' on 5 July 2010, as part of its review of government spending.

The six councils who brought the action – Luton Borough Council, Nottingham City Council, Waltham Forest, Newham, Kent County Council and Sandwell – had had the revamp or rebuild of 58 schools approved before this date. If allowed to go ahead, these projects would have cost the Government £1 billion.

While the Government did not need to consult on its general decision to end the BSF programme, in five of the six cases the failure to consult on its specific implications for local authorities was "so unfair as to amount to an abuse of power".

"However pressing the economic problems, there was no overriding public interest which precluded consultation or justifies the lack of any consultation," Justice Holman said in his ruling.

The judge said that it is too late for other local authorities who may be in a similar position are now too late to raise a claim.

He also suggested that "no one should gain false hope" from his ruling, as the final decision on any project rests with the Education Secretary. "He may save all, some, a few, or none," he said. "The final decision on any given school or project still rests with him."

Responding to a question in the House of Commons, Mr Gove said he would approach the issue in an 'open-minded' way, adding that the judicial review had found in the government's favour on some issues.

"It was, of course, deeply regrettable that any building projects had to be cancelled," Mr Gove said. "But the scale of the deficit we inherited meant cuts were inevitable and the inefficiency which characterised BSF schemes meant we needed a new approach."