John Denham

Welcome to the website of John Denham

John Denham has been representing Southampton Itchen in Parliament since 1992. 

He is currently Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. 

On this website you'll find news about what John's been up to in both Southampton and Westminster. 

You can get in touch with John on constituency issues by following the link below.

 

John Demands answers on Building Schools for the Future

John Denham recently completed his tour of schools hoping to benefit from Building Schools for the Future funding in Southampton Itchen.  Since the election John has been visiting head teachers and campaigning at the gates of city primary schools to gather support for a guarantee from the coalition government that Southampton’s Building Schools for the Future programme will go ahead.

Southampton’s £85million grant to rebuild five secondary schools was signed off by the Labour Government before the recent General Election.  However, a review of BSF was announced on 18th May but no decision has yet been announced.

In a Common’s debate Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove was asked to confirm whether or not BSF funding would be diverted to pay for the Conservatives’ “free schools” project, but failed to provide a direct answer.  Similarly, Minister of State for Schools Nick Gibb, said that “deprivation and particular need” would be the criteria used during the BSF review, suggesting that some schemes in the national BSF programme could face the axe.

John said, "Over the past month hundreds of people have signed my petition demanding that we get the Building Schools for the Future funding we were promised.  It’s an issue that people of all political persuasions feel strongly about, and practically everyone I’ve spoken to wants this to go ahead.  When he visited Southampton during the election campaign David Cameron told the Daily Echo in no uncertain terms that we’d get our new schools.  Why then is it taking so long for the government to confirm things one way or another?  If we have the money to rebuild our schools we need to press on and get the projects under way.  And if we’re not getting the funding the Tories should come clean and admit to another broken promise.”