Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Shuker Excerpts

Monday 24th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[John Woodcock (Barrow and Furness) (Lab/Co-op)]

10. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of provision of primary school places.

[Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op)]

12. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of provision of primary school places.

[The Minister for Schools (Mr David Laws)]

We have more than doubled the allocation of money for basic need to more than £5 billion in this Parliament, and 260,000 additional places were created between May 2010 and May 2013, including 212,000 primary places.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Laws]

We are so serious about this issue that we have doubled the amount of basic need funding going to the hon. Gentleman’s local authority compared with the period under the Labour Government. We are seeking not only to improve the quality of existing schools but to make sure that parents can exercise their choices effectively.

[Gavin Shuker]

In Luton we are 630 primary places short of the number we require—a situation that would be much worse had a free school not been built by an arms-length council body that had to jump through all the hoops of the free school system. Is it not perverse that local authorities are not allowed to build schools?

[Mr Laws]

Local authorities are allowed to build schools. We have allocated £37 million to the hon. Gentleman’s local authority to do precisely that.