New Schools

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Monday 10th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

There are few parts of the country that need schools of quality more than the areas around Merseyside. In Birkenhead, the young people who want a better future are lucky to have such a great champion. We will be bringing forward more UTC proposals, but sadly our capacity to invest in schools of that quality is constrained inevitably by the poisoned economic legacy that we were left.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that UTCs are an essential instrument of social justice, that they transform how we look at vocational education and that they provide young people with a conveyer belt to apprenticeships? Will he also confirm that strong bids, such as that from Harlow college and Anglia Ruskin, will be considered in the next round and that there will definitely be funding for the next phase of UTCs?

[Michael Gove]

Absolutely. My hon. Friend, like the right hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr Field), wants me to go further and faster with reform. If only I could. I can confirm, however, that strong bids, such as those from Birkenhead and Harlow, which have not made the cut this time but which benefit from having very effective constituency advocates and strong backing from an outstanding college or a great university, are bids that we would like to be able to support in the future. We shall continue to work with bidders to try to ensure that they can be agreed.