EDUCATION chiefs say they are confident their plans for a massive £1.8billion re-building programme for every secondary school add up after MPs warned the Government's programme could saddle authorities with huge debts.

The county councillor in charge of overseeing Kent County Council's investment in improving every single secondary school downplayed MPs' concerns about the potential problems with the £45billion Building Schools for The Future (BSF) programme.

A few councils have ended up closing newly-built schools because of falling numbers but have had to continue meeting the costs of maintenance contracts.

Cllr Mark Dance (Con), KCC's cabinet member for schools operations, said Kent had timed its involvement with the BSF scheme "just right" but admitted he was "cautious" about the potential debt repayments under the Private Finance Initiative.

"I am cautious over PFI schemes because they could come back and be a burden on us," he said.

KCC has shortlised two contractors for the first phase, which will see schools in Gravesham, Thanet and Swale either rebuilt or refurbished.

Cllr Dance said: "It is the ideal time. I think some councils have grasped [BSF] money early but had not thought about using it across a group of schools.

"We have arranged ours around clusters, which is an advantage because we know how schools relate to one another."

Kent had built in the need to remove some 8,200 secondary school places over the next decade into its re-building timetable, he added.

"The fact that we have dealt with the primary places issue means we have worked out the knock-on effect on secondaries and we are better placed than most."

MPs on the Commons Education select committee recently urged the Government to take stock of BSF, saying it was not clear if it was right to spend so much on capital schemes.