Labour's Rhoda Grant raises the cancellation of funding for 10 schools by Highland Council in Holyrood. The local authority claims it needs to cut its projected investment outlay but critics say it is a step too far.
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00:00 Rhoda Grant. The Deputy First Minister will be aware that Highland Council has cancelled 10
00:06 new school buildings. That also means that desperately needed affordable housing will be
00:11 lost. It is due to delays with her Government's learning estate investment programme. Will she
00:20 now make decisions about the fund so that local authorities can build schools? Will she apologise
00:26 to pupils, parents, teachers and communities that have been so badly affected?
00:31 First, the LEAP project has been enormously important in terms of the phases 1 and 2.
00:42 Thirty-seven projects were announced, including three in the Highlands, through the first two
00:47 phases. In terms of the third phase, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills will be
00:52 updating Parliament in due course. One of the issues that we have had to look at
00:57 is the position of RAT schools in relation to phase 3, and to ensure that they receive
01:03 the priority that they require. Despite our cut to capital budgetsâgoing forward,
01:14 that will be a cut of nearly 6.7 per centâit is very difficult to build schools, hospitals
01:22 or anything else. I hope that the Member will join us in making sure that we say to the UK
01:29 Government that we absolutely need that investment in capital, in the same way as the Welsh Labour
01:36 Government has said. I met the Treasury with the Welsh Labour Government yesterday, and we are
01:41 saying exactly the same. It is just a pity that Labour Members in this place are not aligning
01:45 with our Welsh Labour Government.