A BUILDING programme which was expected to see millions of pounds invested in Colchester schools has been scrapped.

Education Secretary Michael Gove yesterday told the House of Commons he was axing the Building Schools for the Future programme.

He said the scheme, which had been introduced by the previous Labour Government, was bureaucratic, inefficient and would be too expensive with the country facing crippling debts.

For Colchester, the decision almost certainly means the end of plans to rebuild St Helena School and expand Philip Morant School.

Sir Charles Lucas Arts College will still become an academy in September as planned, but hopes of putting up replacement school buildings in the grounds of the Greenstead school are now in doubt.

Mr Gove said building plans involving academy schools would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

The announcement has also thrown open the question of whether Thomas Lord Audley and Alderman Blaxill schools will close, as was planned as part of Essex County Council’s bid for Building Schools for the Future cash.

Senior politicians last night predicted Alderman Blaxill would be shutting as planned, but said Thomas Lord Audley now stood a better chance of staying open.

Mr Gove admitted thousands of Britain’s school buildings were outdated and unfit for purpose, but said the poor state of the public finances made Labour’s huge proposed building programme unaffordable.

He said the annual interest costs on the national debt were more than the entire yearly schools budget.

Mr Gove added: “The Building Schools for the Future scheme has been responsible for about one third of all this department’s capital spending.

“But throughout its life it has been characterised by massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy.”

Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls, who oversaw the programme when Labour was in power, last night condemned Mr Gove’s decision.

He said: “It is a black day for Britain’s schools.”