Liskeard School and Community College

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 11:03 pm on 11 March 1997.

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Photo of Mr Robin Squire Mr Robin Squire , Hornchurch 11:03, 11 March 1997

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cornwall (Sir R. Hicks) for giving me the opportunity—indeed, the privilege—to respond. I echo what was said by the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Mr. Tyler) about my responding to my hon. Friend's last speech in the House of Commons. Let me make it clear that I regard him as a friend: we have known each other for a time—although not, I immediately concede, as long as the hon. Member for North Cornwall can claim.

It is a measure of my hon. Friend's status that, just after 11 o'clock on a weekday evening, a series of hon. Members on both sides of the Chamber were surrounding him to listen to his speech. In addition to the hon. Member for North Cornwall, we have the hon. Member for North Devon (Mr. Harvey) and my hon. Friends the Members for Falmouth and Camborne (Mr. Coe) and for St. Ives (Mr. Harris), who are here in recognition, and my hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans), which, we would all concede, is a slight jump from Cornwall. The key message is that their presence is in recognition not just of the status of my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cornwall as the senior Cornwall Member, but of his role as a Member of Parliament over nearly 27 years, where he has demonstrated what I would describe as a commendable independence of spirit, and has attracted the significant loyalty of friends, including those on the ministerial Bench.

My hon. Friend raised the subject of Liskeard school and community college in a typically robust and clear way. It is an area that he has represented with considerable skill, and a subject in the general area of education that, as he made clear, he has raised many times before.

I take this welcome opportunity to underline the Government's commitment to improving the condition of our school buildings in general. We estimate that over £6 billion has been spent on county, voluntary-aided and grant-maintained school buildings this decade. That is a substantial national investment, which we wish to continue.

As my hon. Friend has said, it would normally have been the task of my hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan) to respond to this debate, as she is responsible for capital funding for schools, but she cannot be here this evening because of other ministerial business. However, as he said, she has first-hand knowledge, and therefore she regrets her absence. She enjoyed her visit to Liskeard following his invitation in November 1995, a visit that he knows I narrowly missed because of a reshuffle of responsibilities but a few months before. Speaking as the son of a Cornishman, my loss was my ministerial colleague's gain, and I have to some extent been able to draw on her knowledge in making my remarks this evening.

In the past couple of years, we have been able to allocate significant sums for the improvement of schools in Liskeard. This year, we have introduced the schools renewal challenge fund—the SRCF—so that we can target resources on meeting urgent needs, while increasing value for money. That has proved enormously successful and popular. Cornwall, and the Liskeard area in particular, have felt the benefits of that initiative.

In July last year, we were able to allocate to Cornwall £621,000 towards the rebuilding of Liskeard junior school. As my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cornwall made clear in his speech and I readily affirm, that followed significant activity by my hon. Friend in pressing for such funding over a number of years, although I was unaware that it stretched to the full 25. That was on top of £756,000 that had already been allocated to Cornwall in response to bids for the two Liskeard schools in its annual capital guidelines, to which I shall return, assuming time allows.

As I have said, the SRCF has been very popular. Inevitably, it has been highly competitive, and we have been able to support only the best of the bids that we have received—those that have most closely met the published criteria and that offered the best value for money. Judged against that competition, we were unable to make an allocation for Cornwall's bid to bring Liskeard community school on to a single site.

That does not have to be, and is not, the end of the matter. It is not a once-for-all rejection. There is absolutely nothing to stop Cornwall making a further bid in 1997–98, when the SRCF will continue with at least £20 million. I recognise that that bid will not be backed in person by my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cornwall, at least not in the Chamber, but I understand that the local education authority has been in touch with my Department's architects to discuss how the cost-effectiveness of the scheme might be improved.

In total over the past two years, Cornwall LEA has received £1.377 million specifically for Liskeard junior school and Liskeard school and community college through the various means of ACGs, supplementary credit approvals, and so on. That is a significant sum going to the schools in one town—as I know colleagues representing constituencies elsewhere would readily recognise—but is of course not the end of the story.

My hon. Friend will be aware of significant levels of capital funding that have been made available to Cornwall through annual capital guidelines, which feed through into the authority's general borrowing approval. We were able to allocate £6.156 million for 1996–97 and £6.372 million for 1997–98. To put that in context, it represents 66 per cent. of Cornwall's bid, compared with the national average of 21 per cent. That shows that Cornwall has done rather well in terms of allocations in general for school buildings, and I hope goes some way towards answering the odd comment that I have seen, which has implied that Cornwall has been treated less favourably than other authorities.

I should, of course, draw attention to the wider point, that the Government do not control the funding of projects at individual county and voluntary-controlled schools. LEAs decide their own capital expenditure priorities, and it is their responsibility to make the best use of resources available to them. It has been Cornwall LEA's decision to spend the money on schools other than Liskeard in the past. That is not a criticism, necessarily. The priorities are for the authority to set, and it must answer for them to the local community.

I have referred a few times to ACGs. They in turn do not represent all the resources available to LEAs for capital spending. There are, of course, other resources available. LEAs can invest capital receipts and use funds from revenue budgets if they so wish. We have made it easier for authorities to do that in a number of ways. For example, for two years from April 1996, LEAs have been required to set aside only 25 per cent. of proceeds from the sale of surplus assets for debt redemption, as opposed to the previous 50 per cent. That will mean that yet more is available for new capital projects.

We encourage LEAs to explore all funding routes available. Besides the SRCF, they should also consider the private finance initiative. We are committed to achieving the potential opportunities of more and better investment in schools' infrastructure that are offered by the PFI.

I cite one example—it would not be fair to cite more—of an LEA that is taking forward an innovative PFI project to replace the worn-out kitchens of its entire school stock. There has been a good deal of private sector interest from local catering companies, but some larger national players have shown an interest, too. I know that my hon. Friend would agree that it is appropriate that we should encourage all LEAs to consider the PFI options seriously in the interests of opening up investment opportunities and securing better value for money.

Substantial sums have been directed towards improving and renewing educational buildings in this decade. For 1997–98, we have announced record levels of support for capital programmes in schools—just short of £700 million. When the substantial support that we announced for the previous two years is added to it, a total of more than £2 billion in centrally available support has been made available over three years.

To return to the subject of the debate, the picture in Liskeard is far from bleak. As I have made clear, Cornwall has received substantial sums over the past two years for schools' capital expenditure generally and for Liskeard in particular, and there remains the opportunity to bid for further funding in the near future. I very much trust that, when my Department's architects visit the area, they will not only be able to give the LEA useful advice but return with even more knowledge that will enable us better to consider what I am sure will be a subsequent LEA bid.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving me the opportunity to set out the facts. I hope that he will understand if I conclude by wishing him, on behalf of the whole House, a long, happy and healthy retirement.