The Review of Education Capital, led by Sebastian James was originally intended to produce an interim report in September, with a forward plan for the funding period by the end of 2010; that seems an unrealistic timescale, and it has taken much longer – in part to enable some piloting of emerging findings.

Nobody will be surprised by the finding that Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was well intentioned but hopelessly complex and bureaucratic, and therefore wasteful of time and money. What is perhaps more shocking is the report's consistent theme that, for a long period, capital expenditure on schools has lacked a clear, coherent, objective and evidence-based foundation, with confused accountabilities (especially for maintenance) and little opportunity for learning from experience. The review identifies a number of areas in which a simpler, more coherent approach, with a rigorous focus on value for money, could lead to significant gains whilst improving the quality of the end product (the consensus estimate from the workshops is that a cost saving of 30% could be achieved).