Rachel Reeves is set to announce £1.4 billion to rebuild crumbling schools – vowing children shouldn’t “suffer” because of the dire state of Britain’s finances.
The Budget is also expected to include more cash for childcare and free breakfast clubs. Some £1.8 billion is set to be allocated to Government-funded childcare, with a further £15 million of capital funding for school-based nurseries.
Primary schools can now apply for up to £150,000 of the £15 million, with the first stage of the plan expected to support up to 300 new or expanded nurseries across England, it said.
Ms Reeves also said she would “triple” investment in free breakfast clubs to £30 million after having announced at Labour’s party conference a £7 million trial across up to 750 schools starting in April next year.
The Chancellor said: “This Government’s first Budget will set out how we will fix the foundations of the country. It will mean tough decisions, but also the start of a new chapter for Britain, by growing our economy through investing in our future to rebuild our schools, hospitals and broken roads.
“Protecting funding for education was one of the things I wanted to do first because our children are the future of this country. We might have inherited a mess, but they should not suffer for it.”
This Budget will smash the class ceiling that holds so many children back
EXCLUSIVE By BRIDGET PHILLIPSON, Education Secretary
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Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publis)
I came into politics for one reason: to break the link between children’s backgrounds and what they can go on to achieve.
And make no mistake, this budget will help us on the road to more opportunity for all of our young people, to smashing the class ceiling that holds so many children back.
That’s why today I can tell you that despite the economic mess the Tories left us we have taken steps to protect education.
But we have had to take tough decisions to get there.
Without them, the consequences would have been dire: existing school rebuilding projects would had to have been cancelled; care for vulnerable children, already in chaos, cut back; sixth form college places for 16-19 year olds reduced, leading to more kids not in education, employment or training.
We just weren’t prepared to accept that. Labour governments always invest in education – because we know the difference it makes to children’s life chances.
And we’ve wasted no time in reforming our education system. In just under four months, we’ve already achieved more than the Tories have in fourteen years.
In early years, we’ve opened applications for more primary schools to open nurseries and new free breakfast clubs.
In schools, we’ve already made changes to the broken SEND system, putting in place more speech and language support to spot problems early, made a start on recruiting more teachers to fill vacancies in classrooms, and changed the way Ofsted regulates to drive up standards, even where schools are doing well.
And we’ve set up a new body, Skills England, to bring more opportunities for youngsters to get into well-paying, high-skilled jobs in trades.
There’s so much more to do. And I’m working hard every day to bring about the change that the public voted for on July 4th.
But Wednesday’s Budget is an important step that allows us to fix the foundations of our education system so we can begin to deliver the better life chances all our children deserve.