Published on 17 - June - 2010

News

Pre-2010 BSF spending decisions face the axe

The chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander has announced the projects being suspended or cancelled as part of a review of 2010 spending decisions, but a new review into the Building Schools For Future (BSF) programme could reverse decisions made before 2010.

The new government says it has inherited £9bn worth of spending commitments for 2010-11 that were not fully funded and expects to cancel at least £1bn of commitments where no money exists to pay for them. The Con-Lib coalition has also inherited a large number of school building projects approved in recent months as part of the BSF programme. The Secretary of state for education Michael Gove MP announced in parliament on June 8 the start of a review of spending decisions for the whole BSF programme which will include those decisions made before January 1, 2010.

Michael Gove is expected to set out the details of his BSF review within weeks.

In a statement made today (June 17), Danny Alexander said: "Tough decisions will need to be made on reducing costs and addressing where spending has been overcommitted".

So far, across all government departments, 217 projects were re-submitted to Danny Alexander for re-approval, totalling £34bn. Projects to be cancelled (where they have not demonstrated value for money) total 12 programmes which would have cost nearly £2 billion during their lifetime. Projects to be suspended (where more detailed work is needed as part of the spending review process) total 12 programmes which would have cost £8.5 billion during their lifetime.