Court rules region’s councils too late to contest Gove’s school cuts

Education Secretary Michael Gove was criticised by a judge yesterday for cancelling more than 700 building projects across England without any consultation when he axed the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme.

Mr Justice Holman ordered that the decision to axe funding in six areas must be reconsidered because Mr Gove unlawfully failed to consult on the plans after six local authorities from outside the region launched a judicial review.

The judge said that in five of the cases the failure was “so unfair as to amount to an abuse of power”.

Bradford Council, which also lost funding, said it would look carefully at the judgement and “consider the implications” for other authorities, but the judge warned other councils not to expect that they could now follow the same route.

“The decision is now, however, over seven months ago, and in my view any other authorities would now be far too late to apply for judicial review,” he said. “I do not mean to trivialise so important an issue, but it may be said that fortune has favoured the brave.”

The authorities involved in yesterday’s case were Waltham Forest Council, Luton Borough Council, Nottingham City Council, Sandwell Council, Kent County Council and Newham Council, although the judge said there should be no “false hope” the money would be reinstated.

Mr Gove has pledged to look again at their cases with an “open mind”, but a Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are delighted that the judge did not call into question the decision to end the wasteful and bureaucratic Building Schools for the Future programme. On the substantive points he concluded that it was a rational decision.”

Six Yorkshire councils saw £1bn of promised funding withdrawn by Mr Gove when he axed the scheme, with almost 100 school rebuilding projects in the region halted as a result.

Doncaster and Kirklees each had 22 school rebuilding or refurbishment schemes cancelled, Bradford lost funding for 16 refurbishments at existing schools and two new special needs schools while Rotherham, Wakefield and North East Lincolnshire also saw their BSF schemes scrapped.

Under Labour’s £55bn BSF scheme every secondary school in England was due to be rebuilt or refurbished. But it was among the first education schemes to be cut by the coalition, with Mr Gove saying it had been beset by “massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy”.

The Minister came under fire over his handling of the situation after it emerged that initial lists of affected works were strewn with errors, leading to several schools which believed they would be able to go ahead with their building projects having their hopes dashed.

Handing down his judgment, the judge said: “However pressing the economic problems, there was no overriding public interest which precluded consultation or justifies the lack of any consultation.”

Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham said: “The ruling calls into question every school building scheme cut by Michael Gove and is a damning verdict on his competence as a Minister.”