New initiative on school funding launched

Lib Dem-run Shropshire Council is to use money from developers to fund school improvements.

Andy Hall, the Lib Dem Councillor responsible for Children’s Services, explained: “Capital funding is in short supply and we must find new and imaginative ways to obtain money that can deliver infrastructure projects for communities without borrowing money. The best means to do this is by using money that developers through the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and also to tap into grants from Government and other sources that the previous administration failed to do.”

Eleven schools will benefit from the current round of funding. The total estimated cost for this phase is £24,491,500 derived from following capital resources:

• Basic Need Grants: £14,396,307. Dept of Education grant funding
• Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL): £6,695,000. SC developers
• Section 106 Developer Contributions: £2,705,252.
• Non-Ringfenced Capital Grants: £283,477.
• Ringfenced Capital Receipts: £411,464

Lib Dem Council Leader, Heather Kidd, added: “In a nutshell, our policy is to use developers funding more rapidly, get in grant funding and do it in a timely fashion so that schools, GPs, communities are not waiting for years for vital investment.”

PHOTO: Heather Kidd