And no solution to lack of primary school places
Leader of Hounslow council, Cllr Peter Thompson, today hit out at the governments’ announcement about which local authorities will receive funding to help them meet an explosion in demand for primary school places.
London's local authorities have been waiting five months for the details of this funding, and the delay in announcing it has seen the situation worsen.
Sixteen local authorities in the capital will receive a total of £140 million in funding to provide new permanent classrooms.
Based on the latest estimates, the capital faces a predicted shortfall of 50,710 places over the next seven years. Accommodating all of these children in permanent classes would cost approximately £880 million for the period 2010/11 to 2017/18.
As one of the unlucky London Boroughs that will not be receiving the grant, he said, “It’s good to hear that the Education Minister is doing something for some parts of London. But it is a great disappointment that he is ignoring the educational needs of the seventeen other local education authorities that are, or will be experiencing primary school capacity issues in the future.
"We need the government to accept how extreme this crisis is in the capital and provide us with a far greater slice of funding. Our children deserve better than temporary classrooms and expanded class sizes. The government must recognise this and support us accordingly."
Hounslow’s current predictions show that for September 2010, the council needs to plan for 245 new reception class places, or eight additional classes.
Between 2000 and 2007 the number of births in the borough increased from 3081 to 4082, a 32 per cent increase. Historically, the number of children beginning school has been approximately 75 per cent of those born five years earlier. If this carries on the borough will need 2866 reception places by 2010 and 3050 places by 2011.
December 4, 2009