NORTH-EAST councils have rejected a claim that millions of pounds was wasted on hiring experts for a schools building programme.

Figure released by the Conservatives reveal that local authorities spent huge sums on architects, lawyers and consultants for the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme.

The scheme was cancelled during last year’s budget cuts, but not before many new schools had been designed and built.

According to the report, compiled with figures obtained using freedom of information powers, Durham County Council’s total nonbuilding costs exceeded £5.7m.

Sunderland spent more than £1m on accountants, while South Tyneside spent £639,000 on the same.

Charlotte Leslie, who sits on the Education Select Committee, said BSF was an example of Labour’s “tragically wasteful spending”, which, she claimed, lined the pockets of contractors with cash which was supposed to go to children.

But David Theobald, Durham County Council’s project director, said BSF had a complex procurement process requiring a specific level of spending on non-building costs.

He said: “Meeting these costs was a necessary requirement in order to take part in the programme and secure the very substantial capital funding that was made available for our schools.

“We have done this as efficiently as possible and been completely open about the financial commitment we have had to make.”

Councillor Jim Foreman, South Tyneside Council’s lead member for children, young people and families, said the authority’s use of consultants resulted in the authority securing £173m of investment in its schools.

A recent independent report found that BSF was “not fit for purpose” and that the public sector had not got the value it should have done.

It was also found that the bulk of new schools were designed from scratch with significant negative consequences on time, cost and quality.

Nationally, the Tories said £485m was spent on architects, landscape architects, design advisors, lawyers, accountants, consultants and planners for BSF programme.

In response, a Labour Party spokesman said that between 1997 and last year, more than 3,000 schools were built, rebuilt or refurbished.

He said: “The Tory-led Government’s decision to scrap BSF was disastrous for hundreds of thousands of teachers, parents and pupils.”