Three local authorities are taking legal action  against the government for axing the £55bn Building Schools for the Future programme.
Labour-run councils in Nottingham, Luton and Waltham Forest have all called for a judicial review of the decision, taken by education secretary Michael Gove in July.
Nottingham City Council has lodged papers in the Leeds Administrative Court requesting permission to apply for a judicial review of Mr Gove’s decision to stop funding for Top Valley and Trinity schools and Top Valley Learning Centre.
Nottingham is appealing against the decision to …

Lewisham Borough Council has become the first council in seven weeks to secure funding for a Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project.
Deptford Green School, which is part of the last government’s shelved £55bn school building scheme, can now be built after the council secured £28.5m from financing partners earlier this week.
The full BSF programme for Lewisham has a contract value in excess of £400m and involves the major refurbishment or renewal of 12 secondary schools including 3 special educational needs schools.
Deptford Green will be a 1,100-place mixed comprehensive school …

Public sector cuts have led to a sharp decline in the construction market during the second quarter of 2010, according to the latest RICS construction survey.
The figures, which are based on asking surveyors whether workloads are up or down on the month before, fell significantly due to a dip in public works and infrastructure projects.
While most of the market remained steady, the net balance of responses for public sector construction was 30% down.
This has been attributed to the coalition’s axing of the previous government £55bn Building Schools for the Future …

Flintshire County Council in Wales has awarded a £6.1m school building contract to local contractor Read Construction.
Read has been hired to build a new infant school in Connor’s Quay and demolish two old school buildings to create the site for its playing fields as part of the agreement.
Construction is hoped to be complete by July 2012, and demolition will begin in September 2012.
Welsh deputy first minister Ieuan Wyn Jones said offering these types of public sector contract to small local businesses such as Read was essential to support the local …

MPs and peers have picked Wolverhampton MP Paul Uppal to champion property in Parliament.

Uppal was today voted in as chair of the All Party Urban Development Group, which aims to explore ways to unlock sustainable development and urban renewal in the UK.
The newly elected Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West has worked in the property industry before and will begin work on the cross-party group in the autumn.
He replaces Clive Betts MP at the head of the group, after Betts became chair of the Communities and Local Government select …

Plans have been submitted for a new £30m secondary school in Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
The Cowes One School Pathfinder project, which has escaped the government’s Building Schools for the Future axe, is expected to be completed during 2012.
Isle of Wight Council is working with Pihl UK as development partner on the new building.
The plans include biomass heating, rooftop study gardens, and a 650 seat conference centre conference centre.
Other facilities will include:

Music recording studio
A teaching kitchen
Rooftop conference area for staff, pupils and governors
A science garden

The controversy over the government’s decision to axe the £55bn Building Schools for the Future programme shows little sign of abating.
Last Tuesday, education secretary Michael Gove sent out his fifth list of affected schools and Labour’s Margaret Hodge said the Public Accounts Committee she chairs would look at claims of the programme’s waste. In the autumn, the government will finish its review into what could replace the programme.
Contractors will suffer from the scrapping of Building Schools for the Future the most, but the impact will also be felt by property …

Teachers, councillors and school pupils are lobbying at Westminster against the government’s axing of the £55bn schools re-building programme Building Schools for the Future.
Today, the Save Our Schools lobby – led by trade unions – is set to urge ministers to reconsider the move, which has led to 735 school building projects being cancelled. Prime minister David Cameron said this morning that there would still be money for new school buildings and improvements, but not on the same scale as the BSF programme.
Two weeks ago, education secretary Michael Gove announced …

Taxpayers will lose £160m that councils have already spent on preparing for schemes under the Building Schools for the Future programme, which has now been axed.
The Local Government Association said councils had already spent £160m on the legal preparation and paperwork for school rebuilding projects. Councils had to undertake rigorous public consultation and recruit advisers before schemes could be given the green light.
The LGA said 67 authorities has spent more than £160m getting ready for BSF projects that have now been cancelled.
Councillor Shireen Ritchie, chair of the children and young …

Nottingham City Council could take legal action over the government’s decision to axe the £55bn Building Schools for the Future scheme.

Education secretary Michael Gove announced last Monday that BSF is to be scrapped and that 715 schools would be affected, although this figure has not been confirmed due to mistakes in the list.

Nottingham said it was “shocked” that the proposed £33m redevelopment of Trinity and Top Valley schools would no longer be funded and was considering legal action as an option to get the funding.

The work at Trinity and Top …