Balls’ pledge of £100 million pounds to fund more primary school places

Due to a national increase in children approaching school age as well as families migrating, Mr. Balls stated that it will be down to local authorities to make sure there are sufficient places to meet the parental demand.

With the recession also strongly indicating that more parents will choose state schools rather than putting their children through the private system, Mr. Balls said that local authorities must predict the future needs:

“It is now clear that some are now facing big unanticipated rises and so today's announcement will help deal with this issue."

To cope with the ever-rising number of four and five year olds, £270 million will be for new classrooms across 34 local authorities.

A report from London Councils last month claimed that 20 authorities in Greater London either already faced shortages with the announcement that fifty thousand more places will be needed over the next seven years.

Almost half the councils receiving the extra funds for places will be in the London area. £24 million will go to Birmingham with further allocations for more places in Bradford, Leeds, Bolton, Manchester and Swindon.

Mr. Balls is also setting out the next phase of the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ project, with announcement of a further £1 billion to rebuild and renovate schools throughout the UK.