Stockport Council’s Lead Member for Education, Cllr Dean Fitzpatrick, has announced the largest in-year capital investment programme in schools by Stockport Council in the Borough’s history.
The announcement emerged during September’s Full Council meeting (Thursday 14th September), during which Cllr Fitzpatrick outlined £25 million in funding to upgrade and repair Stockport’s maintained school buildings and to deal with the growing demand for places.
The money has been found through a combination of Central Government grant money (£10.3million) gained after Stockport Council reviewed the available needs data, and further SMBC investment brought forward to invest, in order to save down-the-line expenditures.
This prudential approach to bringing forward money already earmarked for schools means the move comes at no additional expense to Stockport ratepayers but will save costs over time.
Speaking about the announcement, Cllr Fitzpatrick said:
“Stockport has some of the best schools in the North West and our results prove that. However, the quality of some of the buildings doesn’t meet that high standard.
“I am pleased to announce what amounts to by far the single largest in-year capital investment made in Schools by this Local Authority since the Borough was created in 1973.
“This will free up the resources needed to allow the Council to move away from inefficient piecemeal repairs, repairing single roofs for example, and instead invest in improving our schools’ fabric and planning for the future needs of our children.
“We have been well aware that the state of some of our schools is below where it should be, thanks to years of underinvestment at a national level, and a lack of a clear and coherent policy to deal with the problem locally. This is why we have worked hard with officers to make these resources available, which will make a real difference and reduce some of the burden on our schools.
“That said, I want to make it clear that Stockport still requires significant additional investment in order to keep up with demand and to build the capacity needed for the future. The government has cut this part of the budget by £42million since 2010, and this funding model is unsustainable. Stockport still requires significantly more central government funding and we will continue to work hard to make that case.“
Cllr Fitzpatrick’s speech containing the announcement and further details is available for viewing here: https://stockport.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/303949 from 1h.33mins