Councils would be given back control of academies and have new powers to build more schools if Labour were elected, the party conference heard yesterday.
Shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, said Labour would scrap the government’s academy and free schools programme and would give councils the power to create new places. She said: ‘The Tories talk about devolution. But they want to hand down the blame, not the budget. Councillors are left responsible for school places but without the power to create them.’
She added: ‘We’ll allow academies to return to local authority control. We’ll end the scandal of individuals and companies profiting from schools they are involved in, stopping fat cat pay for bosses and restoring fair pay for staff.’
Ms Rayner also announced plans to introduce a new national Substitute Teacher Register to help save every school in England over £25,000.
The system would enable schools to book teachers from a government held register, eliminating the need to pay expensive agency fees.
