The General Election is likely to cause a delay to school projects as the new government reorders priorities.

Partnerships for Schools (PfS) has warned that there may be a “slight delay” to schools projects for up to five months after the next election while the new government establishes priorities.

However, the public body set up to deliver Building Schools for the Future (BSF) also expects commitment to spending on both the academies and primary capital programme from a new government.

The lack of affordable housing in rural areas is causing the local primary schools to close at the rate of one a month.

The figures obtained by the National Housing Federation (NHF) show that 13 village primaries closed in 2006, 14 closed in 2007 and 13 in 2008. Overall, between 2004 and 2008 there were 62 closures, which is the highest number since the 1990s.

The Federation says that Local Councils are ordering the closures in a bid to save money as pupil numbers in rural areas fall due to parents earning below average incomes, compared with above average house prices.

The Conservatives are planning to overhaul the UK’s school building programme, including slashing the budget of delivery body Partnership for Schools.

The plans are part of an overhaul of schools policy, including the £55bn Building Schools for the Future programme, being discussed by the shadow Treasury team and shadow schools department. It is likely to see funds diverted from new buildings and major refurbishments towards smaller improvements in areas such as IT and furnishings.

Delayed work on a number of colleges under the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) scheme should come together with Building Schools for the Future (BSF) projects, to get them off the ground, according to a Government spending watchdog.

The Public Accounts Committee has produced a report on the further education college programme, in which it accuses the LSC of ‘recklessness’ in its management of the scheme. It suggests the LSC “over-stimulated” the demand for funding and mismanaged the approval process.

The LSC programme ground to a halt in March when 144 college schemes were put on hold after the LSC over-committed its budget by more than 150%. Since then, just 13 colleges have been given the go-ahead to work up their proposals.

It is likely the report will increase the pressure on a future Government to put the stalled college building programme under the control of BSF delivery body Partnerships for Schools.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls has announced that six local authorities have been given the go-ahead for their Building Schools for the Future (BSF) work programmes.

Barnet, Bolton, Hampshire, Peterborough, Sunderland and Wigan are the first in what has been referred to as a series of “rolling starts” for the remaining 70 local authority projects yet to join BSF.

The six will immediately start planning, after £500m was released for 2011-12. The Sunderland development is worth £100m, with the remaining five each worth about £80m.

These developments will join more than 1,000 individual building, rebuilding or renewal BSF projects already under way across 80 local authorities in England.

The 13 college schemes provisionally approved by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) are estimated to cost twice the £300million of funding available, leading to fears that the projects could be cut.

The LSC has said that ’significant but manageable cuts’ will need to be made to the schemes, to allow the budget to be shared around.

It is thought that the schemes were originally priced at £600million.

Only 13 of 180 schemes have received funding, since the £5billion college building programme was placed on hold in March. Consultation on prioritising the remainder of the schemes will begin in the autumn. The schemes will have to wait until at least 2011/12 to secure funding.

Partnerships for Schools (PfS) is considering using regional frameworks for the £15.6billion of building work that it will be responsible for from 1st October.

The £1.6billion primary school building programme is amongst the work being transferred to PfS from the Department for Children, Schools and Families. As yet, no procurement route has been agreed for this work and the use of frameworks is expected to benefit medium-sized contractors.

PfS is already responsible for delivering the £45billion Building Schools for the Future programme.