£5.1bn a year for school facelifts

An ambitious plan to refurbish every secondary school in England by 2020 was announced today.

Tony Blair gave details of the £5.1 billion-a-year scheme as he moved to shift the political focus away from Iraq and on to the domestic agenda.

He said the boost in funding was desperately needed to reverse decades of underinvestment and to launch "the greatest school renewal programme in British history".

The plan will see an initial wave of 14 local authorities receiving £2 billion over the next two years - allowing 180 secondary schools to be completely refitted and brought up to "21st century standards".

The authorities include Newham, Southwark, Greenwich and Lewisham and Waltham Forest.

The project will then be "rolled out" across the country in a programme which will last 15 years. It was not immediately clear how much new money was going towards funding the scheme, which will see capital spending reach £5.1 billion by 2005, up seven times from its 1997 level of £700 million.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "This represents a fundamental shift in spending - away from the old patch-andmend approach of fixing a leaky roof here or mending a broken window there, to a systematic overhaul.

"It will create 21st century environments for learning for all our students."

Mr Blair was making his speech after a special "political"-session of his Cabinet, at which he was issuing a blunt warning that the Government was failing to get its message across on public services.

He was set to tell ministers they had to do more to shift the spotlight away from Iraq and weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to local elections, including the London mayoral poll.

His speech was an effort to persuade critics that he had not lost the reforming zeal which saw him declare before coming to power that his top three priorities were " education, education, education".

He claimed: "This is a massive investment in our nation's future."

Mr Blair also called for an expansion of city academies - independently managed schools in the state sector, many of which are in economically deprived areas.

The redevelopment scheme aims to deliver "tailored classroom facilities to support innovative teaching", integrated computer systems and more help for specialisations.

A further spate of announcements on other public sector issues - including health and transport - are expected over the next few weeks as the Government tries to set out a blueprint for a third term in power.