Repairs backlog: Experts warn of 'false economy'

MAJOR cuts to the school rebuilding programme would deliver a false economy as it would leave the country with soaring repair costs to decaying classrooms in the future, experts have warned.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have also said the widespread withdrawal of funding from the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme could damage the region's economy as private sector investment was still fragile.

Roger Tilbrook, of PSK Prout Tilbrook Chartered Surveyors, in Batley, and regional spokesman for RICS, urged the Government to take a long-term view.

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"Nationally there is 55bn of investment through BSF under review," he said. "The Government must avoid a short-term knee-jerk reaction to budgetary pressures. It would harm the economy but could also lead to disproportionate repair costs building up in schools.

"BSF has not just been about new buildings there has been a hidden repair cost involved and this will get higher if BSF projects are cut. In the 1950s and 60s new school buildings were provided but then nothing was spent on maintaining them and the costs of repairs became disproportionately high."

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