Reeves pledges £1.4bn for 'crumbling' classrooms

The funding pledge comes after the BBC revealed that 23 out of more than 500 schools on the School Rebuilding Programme had been completed so far, while the Department for Education (DfE) has been missing its targets for hiring builders.The Treasury said the funding for the next financial year was a £550m increase on spending this year, which would “ramp up” progress towards 50 rebuilds per year.It said overall spending on school and college buildings would be set out in the full Budget announcement.Reeves also said the government would spend £1.8bn on the expansion of government-funded childcare in the next financial year, with further details on childcare spending also expected to be set out on Wednesday.The plan to increase that funding between this financial year and the next was set out in the 2023 spring Budget, external under the previous Conservative government.The Treasury said it would triple spending on its rollout of free breakfast clubs for primary pupils in England,…