Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve Reed and Nick Gibb

Monday 20th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gibb]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her support for the national funding formula. It is a fair funding formula that gives priority to disadvantage and to low prior attainment. For too long, too many parts of the country have been underfunded, and this will remedy that.

[Mr Steve Reed (Croydon North) (Lab)]

20. How will the new national funding formula help students at Paxton Primary Academy in Thornton Heath, which is now in its third year in portakabins piled up in the back yard of a rugby club? Because work still has not started on its permanent school, it is now looking at its fourth, and possibly even fifth, year in portakabins. It is unacceptable that this should continue. Will the Minister meet me and parents to discuss how to resolve the situation?

[Mr Gibb]

Yes, I am happy to meet the hon. Gentleman. Ninety-six per cent. of schools in temporary accommodation have a permanent site, and in the vast majority of cases they are on temporary sites for just one year. These are exceptional circumstances where it is more than four years.