Quintain expectedly refused 'crucial' second tranche of Building Safety Fund monies for Forum House works. They will appeal.

 

Quintain Ltd have written to the residents and leaseholders of Forum House to annouce that the second tranche of funds for remedial works to the facade of the the Wembley Park building has been refused.

They wrote:

Our priority has always been to ensure that you as residents remain safe in your homes and that leaseholders of Forum House you receive the appropriate financial support from the Government’s Building Safety Fund (BSF) where required.

Since applying to the dedicated Building Safety Fund on your behalf and submitting the required evidence in December 2020, we were informed in May 2021 that Forum House is eligible to receive financial support from the BSF. We received the first portion of this funding in September 2021 which allowed us to align a team of designers and contractors with a trusted supply chain to plan and prepare the works. We submitted our final application to the Department of Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC) in October 2021 for the remainder of the funding we sought on your behalf in order to begin construction.

Unfortunately, we have received notice from the DLUHC that our application for this crucial second portion of funding has ultimately been declined, prohibiting us from continuing with the project at this stage. Although full funding for the project was not formally guaranteed by the DLUHC, we were not expecting this decision. Since receiving the first portion of funds to finance the initiation of the project, we received no indication that our application for further support from the BSF would be unsuccessful.

Throughout this process we have worked closely with a dedicated case officer at the Greater London Authority (GLA) and BSF since May 2021, both of which have advised our team and worked with us to ensure our application followed the requirements set by the DLUHC.

We will now be appealing this decision with the support of industry consultants and will advise you on any further updates. 

 Quintain have also put on hold work on the timber decking in the building pending assessment of new guidance.

They conclude:

We would like to re-enforce that Forum House was constructed to meet building regulations at the time it was completed in 2008. An independent fire officer, who undertook an intrusive survey on the building in late 2020, deemed Forum House safe and not in need of further fire safety measures that other buildings have had to implement throughout this remediation process, such as additional fire alarms or a waking watch.

Our priority remains to ensure that you as residents remain safe in your homes and are receiving the Government support that we believe Forum House is eligible for, should façade remediation be required.

Lobby and Rally on BSF Cuts and Academies

An urgent lobby of Parliament has been called on July 19th over the cuts in the Building Schools for the Future programme which will affect Alperton, Copland, Cardinal Hinsley and Queens Park schools in Brent. It may also impact on the scheduled rebuild of the Crest Academies (formerly John Kelly Boys and Girls schools).

The BSF cuts are intimately linked with the academies programme because many local authorities were forced to convert schools to academy status to secure BSF funding. A cursory glance at the Michael Gove's notoriously unreliable list shows that there is a bias towards maintaining funding for academies and stopping it for community schools. In many areas only academy projects remain.  LIST HERE (Item 2) (As a good Green I am sending Gove some used envelopes so that he can use the backs of them to work out some more policies).

The Anti-Academies Alliance will be joining the lobby on the 19th July . There will be a Rally at Methodist Central Hall, opposite Parliament at 1pm followed by lobbying. The AAA's focus is on the Academies Bill which gets its second reading that day.  They state:

This Bill seeks to develop a 'revolution' in education policy by which academies become 'the norm'. As it stands, the Bill denies parents (or staff and the local community) the right to any consultation over the decision to seek academy status. It paves the way for an unprecedented deregulation and privatisation of schools. It will create the conditions for the undermining of Local Authority support for schools in vital areas such as SEN, admissions and behaviour. It will prevent the rational planning of school places in the future allowing dis-economies of scale to develop. The new 'free' schools it will encourage with mean other schools have to close.

On July 8th, Lord Hill of Oareford , appointed Academies Minister, wrote to schools considering becoming academies, on a number of issues including the Freedom of Information Act, Special Educational Needs, Consultation and Transfer of Land.. LETTER HERE The letter says that Academies will now be covered by the Freedom of Information Act on a par with maintained schools and that Part 4 of the Education Act 1996, covering Special Educational Needs will now apply to Academies. The section on consultation is weak requiring governing bodies of converting schools to only 'consult those person whom they think appropriate' before entering into funding arrangements with the Secretary of State. Further guidance is promised to be published on the DES website.

An Early Day Motion (EDM 135 02.06.10) has been tabled amending the Academies Bill to ensure proper consultation. You can e-mail your MP to sign it HERE. I suggest you amend the model letter on the site before sending it on.

WILL TEATHER FIGHT FOR BRENT SCHOOLS?

Meanwhile it will be interesting to see Sarah Teather's response on BSF. She told the Wembley Observer (July 8th) that 'Brent schools had been led up the garden path'...'Brent children who desperately need new classrooms have had their hopes raised and dashed, only because Labour wanted parents' votes. The lasting legacy of the previous Labour administration is a string of extravagant election promises and not enough cash to pay for them'.

Six years ago when she argued in the House of Commons for Brent to be included in the BSF programme she didn't appear to think the programme was 'extravagant':

'The executive summary of the Government's consultation document, "Building Schools for the Future", stated: "School buildings are important to pupils' education." The research showed a clear link between capital investment and school standards. In practical terms, the budgetary pressure has prevented the council from taking action to replace the portakabins in the John Kelly secondary schools.

'Brent has a poor stock of school buildings; the lack of available cash for maintenance means that many have a large backlog of minor repairs that may well be more expensive to fix now than if they had been dealt with sooner. Brent is desperate to be part of the second wave of "Building Schools for the Future", which is due to be announced in the autumn. At the moment, some schools are forgoing expenditure in the hope—indeed the expectation—that BSF funding will be made available soon.'

Sarah Teather described the Tories' 'free schools' policy as a 'shambles' during the General Election campaign. I wonder if she agrees with Simon Hughes', Liberal Democrat deputy leader, speaking about free schools on the BBC Politics Show, 'It would be nonsense to take money that could be used for improving existing schools to create new schools'.

Anti-Academies Alliance Website HERE

Fight Tooth and Nail for Decent School Buildings

Brent Council confirmed the impact of the BSF programme on Brent schools with the following release.

Head teachers and students in Brent were shocked at the announcement  by the Government to axe the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

The timing couldn't have been more poignant for Brent's schools. As the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, addressed the House of Commons, students from Alperton Community School, Queens Park Community School, Copland Community School and Cardinal Hinsley Mathematics and Computing College were presenting to Brent Council their ideas and plans for their future buildings.

The four schools had been allocated £80m under the BSF programme.

Maggie Rafee, Head teacher at Alperton Community School, said: "There can be no denying that the news about the BSF programme being axed is absolutely devastating.

"This will mean our school will face uncertainty while we await the outcome of the review and go through whatever new hoops are set to secure the capital monies that the minister announced will still be available for schools in the greatest need. Our school will do whatever is necessary to make politicians sit up and take notice."

Students at the school have written to the Secretary of State for Education and invited him to visit the site and see why the investment is needed.

Councillor Ann John, Leader of Brent Council, said: "Yesterday's announcement will have a devastating impact on the educational opportunities of Brent's students for generations to come.

"The rising population in the borough has meant a shortage of school places and, with many of our schools in poor condition, this investment was vital.

"We will be drawing on the support of our MPs to argue our case to Government for this much-needed investment that goes beyond new buildings. Without funding Brent will not be able to meet the demand for pupil places in the future."

The axing of this programme along with the Coalitions claim that 'free schools' can be housed in closed down factories and warehouses, empty shops and disused churches, shows that they are completely out of touch with the needs of schools. We will be returning to private affluence (from whence most of them came) and public squalor.

I started teaching in the 1970s and remember classrooms with carefully positioned buckets catching rainwater leaking through ceilings, windows held together with tape and string,  walls covered with sugar paper to hid cracked and mouldy plaster. Are we really going to put up with this Government returning us to that state - along with oversized classes and shortage of text books and resources? 

The message given to pupils in such schools is: You don't matter.

We must fight tooth and nail to ensure our children have decent, sustainable school buildings which are fit for purpose.

Council calls on government to retain school rebuilding funds

The leader of Brent Council has written to the Secretary of State for Education to urge the government to continue its investment for Brent's schools.

Whilst the Department for Education has yet to make an announcement on the future of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, Brent's councillors are keen to ensure that their allocation of funding is protected from the current government spending review.

The £80 million investment which was allocated to the borough last November, will allow Brent to deliver much needed extra capacity to cope with growing pupil numbers and proceed with a major re-building and renovation scheme that will start to transform secondary schools throughout the borough.

Councillor Ann John, OBE, Leader of Brent Council said: "We need to improve our school buildings and increase places to accommodate an expanding population and therefore feel it's important for the Secretary of State for Education to know why the investment for Brent is so vital. If funding is withdrawn we will not be able to meet the demand for new secondary school places in the future.

"We are confident that we have a strong case and continue to develop detailed plans with phase one schools, partners and the wider community on the programme which is desperately needed in the borough."

Another area of concern that arose at the recent Brent Governors' Conference was the future of Children's Centres. Brent is now on track to have 20 such multi-agency centres but funding is safeguarded for only one year.  There is a real possibility that new buildings  will have to be moth-balled due to lack of funds.

Children's Centres are really vital for early intervention to overcome the impact of deprivation on the development of young children.