The scrapping of school building projects may be the price of protection teaching jobs, according to John Dunn, director at educational staffing specialist, Randstad Education.

In this week’s comprehensive spending review, the Chancellor announced that the budget for schools will rise by £4bn to £39bn, while 700 rebuilding projects are to be scrapped.

Dunn told Recruiter: “Scrapping ‘Building Schools for the Future’ [programme] may be the price we pay for safeguarding teaching jobs. Even so, £15.8bn of planned capital spending is still a significant sum of money.

“We are also pleased that funds given to councils for our schools will be ring-fenced for education and can’t fall victim to any temptations to siphon it away. But if the pay and pensions freeze means that teachers have to work longer for less we must be ready for more absenteeism due to stress.”