Impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review

Reasons for hope

• The Regional Growth Fund has been established with £1.4 billion set aside to stimulate economic growth in areas impacted by public sector cuts.
• The CSR recognised the importance of infrastructure spending.
• Crossrail has been kept.
• The planning system is to be reformed (again) to support economic development.
  

Reasons to be fearful

• CABE has been axed, leaving a large gap in design and architectural guidance to the development sector.
• Cities with a strong dependence on public sector employment will be most impacted.
• Local Authorities must slash budgets and will take resources away from Planning Departments, harming the potential for growth.

The role of buildings in education

The axing of school rebuilding projects continues to dominate the news (no doubt fueled by Ed Balls' Labour leadership campaign). Forgetting the regretful way in which the news was disseminated to the public, it raises an interesting question over what role school buildings play in education. This article provides an interesting reflection on both sides of the argument:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/11/education-school-building-projects

Without appearing to sit on the fence too much, I take a rather more pragmatic view that sits between the two views shared above. Most importantly the building should be structurally sound and meet all required building standards.


Repairing any school buildings with leaky roofs and unsafe playgrounds must be the priority. But I do wonder if architects have blown the BSF project out of proportion and see it as a cash cow to design over elaborate new schools. I don't doubt Rowan Moore's comments that good architecture can inspire children, but this does not require multi-million pound development projects. I would hope that creativity and imagination in the built form can still be demonstrated on a smaller scale.

Greater attention should be focused on meeting best practice standards for school buildings (see this CABE research). Only once every school in the country has met these minimum standards can the attention shift to more elaborate design schemes and innovations.