School Funding Reform

Stuart Andrew Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I am very much aware that all of Northamptonshire, east and west, is benefiting from population growth. It is critical that we meet basic need pressures wherever they are. They are most acute in London and the south-east, but there are many parts of the country where the population is growing fast.

[Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con)]

I welcome this announcement. The shortage of primary school places is due in part to the baby boom, as we have heard, and it is staggering that those warnings went ignored for so long. In my constituency this has been compounded by massive residential estates on brownfield sites, leaving my schools to struggle and the situation to get worse. I urge my right hon. Friend to give due consideration to that, and to the schools that are suffering.

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. Our population has risen for a variety of reasons, and unfortunately the previous Government did not prioritise that in the way they should have done, but I am grateful that the right hon. Member for Leigh is now emphasising that basic need should be our shared first priority.