Kirklees Council leader Cllr Mehboob Khan has written to the new government to ask for clarification on the Building Schools for the Future programme.

With a Comprehensive Spending Review due in Autumn, Cllr Khan has written personally to the Secretary of State Michael Gove MP setting out the benefits of BSF locally, and the risks associated with not going ahead with the £280m funding package at this late stage of the process.

He said: “I am mindful that there is nervousness regarding BSF. This is our chance to achieve a massive change in attainment, achievement and aspiration by a programme of change management and capital investment that will transform the ways our young people learn, how our schools are configured, managed and led, and the quality of our learning environments.

“If we are to meet our six key aims in the future education programme, then the government must listen to us.”

The aims are to:

- raise attainment through a broad curriculum

- enhance diversity and support self governance

- improve performance and improve the figures around those not in education, employment or training

- improve inclusion

- provide school places where they are most needed and appropriate

- promote community cohesion

Cllr Khan wrote in his letter: “We have undertaken extensive public consultation over the last 3 years, resulting in (to date) 19 sets of statutory decisions relating to school closures, creating new schools, adjusting sizes, age ranges and priority admission areas.  We have particularly sought the views of all parents to help shape the new system and proposed a pattern of provision that both meets the balance of parental and pupil wishes as expressed, whilst shaping a viable and sustainable system. In some parts of Kirklees we have engaged with parents in up to four separate consultations as we have tailored the plans to fit their aspirations for their children.

“In this context, and given the scale and importance of our collective ambition in Kirklees, we feel strongly that any reduction in capital investment through BSF would not only reduce our capacity to provide stimulating and high quality learning environments, but could fundamentally affect our drive to improve standards.”