Cuts Watch #112: More projects to be cancelled

05 Jul 2010, by Richard Exell in Cuts Watch

The Treasury has announced further cuts in “unfunded spending commitments”, worth a total of £1.54 billion. The Building Schools for the Future scheme will be especially hard hit. We reported the 17 June Treasury announcement, in which £2 billion worth of projects were cancelled and another £8.5 billion postponed. Today’s announcement – which lists the Departments affected, rather than specific projects – relates to projects that were to be paid for by using the End of Year Flexibility system that allows Departments to carry forward budget underspends.

Four Departments will be affected:

• Department for Education: £1 billion
• Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: £265 million
• Department for Communities and Local Government: £220 million
• Home Office: £55 million

We will report on the cuts in each Department as more detail becomes available. It has been widely reported that the cuts at the Department for Education will affect youth clubs and Sure Start and that 700 school re-building projects under the Building Schools for the Future project are at risk.