SEVEN Scunthorpe schools feared ambitious building projects would be scrapped in the latest round of government cuts – but last night it emerged they will be safe.

Education Secretary Michael Gove announced the end of the Building Schools For The Future (BSF) programme yesterday.

The programme, which funds the construction and refurbishment secondary school buildings, was criticised as "overly-bureaucratic" and "wasteful".

Mr Gove told MPs: "The action necessary to improve our schools is made more difficult by the truly appalling state of the public finances left by the last government.

"The Building Schools For The Future scheme has been responsible for about one-third of all this department's capital spending.

"But throughout its life it has been characterised by massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy."

The government is canceling planned revamps at 715 schools around England, but 706 BSF schemes, where work is at an advanced stage, will carry on.

A total of £5 billion will be saved by the move.

Those in North Lincolnshire were spared the spending axe because the plans are so far advanced and the schools are relieved they have not fallen victim to the latest cuts.

Ben Lawrence, head teacher of Frederick Gough School said: "For the past five years we've been working towards this and we're about to put in our formal business case with the intention that by the end of September we'll have started planning with architects.

"If it weren't to go ahead we would have wasted hundreds and hundreds of man hours over the past five years."

And multimillion-pound projects are in the pipeline elsewhere.

Joan Barnes, headteacher of St Lawrence Academy said: "We're in the process of working with a design team.

"We're planning an £11.5 million project of rebuilding, refurbishing and refreshing.

"Cuts would have been devastating for us, but if we didn't get them we would continue to build on the positives and carry on striving.

"We would dearly love to have that amount of money to invest in our students' future as they deserve it."

St Lawrence Academy in Scunthorpe, Brumby School, Foxhills School, Frederick Gough School, St Bedes School and St Hughes School will all be redeveloped.

And plans to replace Thomas Sumpter and South Leys schools with a new school on the Thomas Sumpter site will also go ahead.

The region has been spared the worst of the cuts, while in neighbouring North East Lincolnshire rebuilding plans at ten schools were cancelled.

While many projects will be allowed to continue, the government plan to see how savings can be made within them.

Originally, all of England's 3,500 schools were to be revamped by 2023 under the £55-billion scheme.

A total of 1,100 schools have already signed up to the scheme, investing time, energy and money.

But as the coalition look to tackle a trillion-pound deficit, cuts have had to be made across the board.

Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy, speaking in the Commons, said: "What we need is to divert these resources to the most needy children in our communities."

The education secretary also set out plans for capital spending in England's primary and secondary schools for 2011 to 2015.