Academies Bill [Lords]

May I say how much I, as a new boy, have enjoyed the Committee stage and how useful I have found it as a mechanism for at least asking questions and trying to clarify points? Yesterday's proceedings were long, but very useful to me in trying to understand how this process works. There is value in this amendment. It is always important to spend public money as wisely as we possibly can. There will be disputes about policy initiatives and priorities, but whatever the priority, we need always to get the best value for the money we spend. If that was ever important, it certainly is now. In the spirit of the Committee, I shall not go into why we are in the difficulties that we are in, but most people accept that we are in a time of great austerity where we face cuts, tax increases and spending decisions that require careful thought. Priorities are the real issue, and they are well highlighted in the amendment. We have a good opportunity to find out where hon. Members' priorities lie. It is very difficult for some to hold the line on the Building Schools for the Future programme, although not in terms of reviewing the BSF process. Many of us have been critical of that process for a long time because of its bureaucracy and value-for-money elements. It is useful to consider that this is an existing proposal, because although we have been told by the Minister of State, Department for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather), that the BSF parrot is very definitely dead, we have also been assured that the investment in school buildings is not. One of the purposes of the BSF review is to examine where we can still spend money, although probably in a better way. That issue touches many hon. Members from all parts of the House, because we have local schools that are caught up in the BSF programme and whose funding has been frozen. We cannot have everything that we want in life, particularly when times are hard, so the question becomes one of what we actually spend and the priorities we make. The amendment proposes that a new subsection (1B) to clause 2 should state:"““The purpose of the consultation…shall be to establish whether there are outstanding requirements for capital investment for existing schools””." I know of 19 schools in the Bradford district that are part of the BSF programme and have outstanding requirements, six of which are located in my constituency. Two of those are special schools that most certainly have outstanding requirements for capital investment. I am using the amendment to find an answer to the question: where do the priorities lie? In a recent interview with ““Channel 4 News”” the Secretary of State said:"““We're allocating £50 million of capital over the next year””." It came as somewhat of a shock to me that at this time of austerity, when we are rejecting many other worthwhile proposals, such as the extension of free school meals, because we have not got any money, all of sudden £50 million could be conjured up to support an initiative. He went on to say that that allocation would be"““up to April of next year, in order to help get some projects off the ground””." The crucial bit came when he went on to say:"““And then in the future this will be, obviously, a priority for our capital expenditure.””" That relates to my question. We may not be able to afford all the projects that are included within the BSF programme, and we need to carry out the review, but where do the schools involved in that programme stand in the pecking order against this proposal to put new money into the new schools that are being created? We have had the debate on the principles, the philosophy and the ideology of this thing, so this thing is likely to happen. This is not simply about rushing through legislation, but about its implementation. Where does the funding for these particular proposals stand in relation to the huge expectation and demand that has been created by the BSF programme? Where does it come in the pecking order? That will be crucial when we have to go back to schools at the end of the review and say, ““I am sorry. We carried out the review and we have not got any money for you.”” How will they receive that response if, at the same time, we are investing in other schools—in new schools that are being opened? Such schools may be in areas with surplus places—in other words, there may not be a demand for a new school. The value of the amendment is that it allows us to discuss our priorities and where this particular initiative stands in that list of priorities.