The story of post-war school building.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Education.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The story of post-war school building. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    grammes put together. Momentum had been achieved. With the establishment of the procedural machinery just described and the ready cooperation of local authorities a closer control over school building was possible. The aim henceforth was to combine quantity with both quality and economy; not only sufficient schools by the right time in the right place, but the right kinds of school at the right price. The pursuit of value for money had begun. Cost per place! 62. Up to and including the 1949 programme authorities were not required to keep the cost of their projects within any announced limits. They submitted an estimate of cost or an actual tender cost and this was approved when it seemed reasonable in the circumstances of each case. For several years before the war the cost of building was notably stable throughout the country. After the war the position was quite different. Building costs in 1945 were about 50 per cent higher than in 1939. From 1945 to 1949 they rose steadily but in varying measure from area to area according to the local labour and materials position. The experience and efficiency of administrative and professional staff, as well as of building contractors’ labour, varied substantially according to the rate at which demobilisation, resettlement and training was completed. Furthermore, there were as yet no commonly agreed ideas of how to translate educational requirements into plans for school buildings. Some plans used much more space than others to meet the same needs. 63. Three obvious things happened. The cost of school building varied widely from project to project and place to place; it was every- where much higher than before the war; and it kept on rising. The need to arrest this trend and to secure stability of administration and uniform- ity of standards had already become clear by the middle of 1949. At this time the worsening of the country’s economic position made 1The following paragraphs deal with nett cost per place, that is, the cost per place of the school buildings proper, including built-in furniture and fittings and associated playgrounds. Gross cost per place is nett cost per place plus additional cost per place, the latter covering the cost of external works such as roads, paths, fences, playing fields, drainage and the supply of services up to the building. A uniform limit of cost such as is applied to nett cost, cannot be applied to additional cost because of the marked variation in site conditions. On ‘average the additional costs of a school account for little more than 10 per cent of its nett cost, but the precise amount is settled individually for each school in the light of local circumstances.