No Extra Budget Cash for School Building in Dundee in 2013/14

In his Budget statement last Thursday, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance announced an additional £80 million for school building. This would, he claimed, boost the school building programme in Scotland by delivering 69 schools – 12 more than previously planned, and earlier than scheduled. At the same time as building more schools this would he claimed be a boost for jobs, especially in the construction industry.

This gave me the hopeful impression that some almost shovel ready school building projects in Dundee might be brought forward to the next financial year 1 April 2013- 31 March 2014. I had hoped that this would also have helped find jobs for those construction workers in our city who lost their jobs when Brown Construction went into receivership.

But research carried out by the independent Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) has cast doubt on this part of John Swinney's spending plans. They say:
 “This involves an acceleration of Non Profit Distribution investment originally planned for 2015-16 and 2016-17 into 2014-15, and will not impact on capital investment in 2013-14."

It would now appear that getting an earlier start to construction of the replacement Harris Academy will not now be feasible.