The worst fears of schools and colleges across the West Midlands were confirmed yesterday when both Schools Secretary Ed Balls and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said building plans faced major delays.

Mr Balls said spending would be restricted because of the state of the economy but insisted the Government was “confident” it could continue to fund the secondary school rebuilding programme over the next five years.

It would be down to the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, to decide whether cash was available, Mr Balls said.

Birmingham has drawn up plans to rebuild 89 schools as part of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme. The city hopes to complete the process by 2024, at a cost of £2.4 billion. The first phase involves redeveloping 12 schools, including a special school and a primary school, by 2011.

It is part of a national project to rebuild or refurbish every school in the country, at a total cost of between £52 billion and £55 billion.

But a report last week by the Commons Public Accounts Committee warned that progress on the building programme was too slow.

Mr Balls said his department was “working very hard” to ensure the building programme went ahead as planned.