The BBC's Valerie Jones: "Schools will have to bid for the money"

Projects will range from fixing leaking roofs and replacing temporary classrooms through to the installation of new heating systems and the construction of new schools.

Some are being funded from the extra £19bn being made available for education as a result of the government's comprehensive spending review.

Others will take place as a result of local authorities being given permission to borrow funds and make deals with the private sector under the private finance initiative.

Mr Blunkett announced the programme during a visit to Parliament Hill School in London.

David Blunkett: "Pupils and teachers have a right to expect decent conditions"

He said it amounted to an extra £750 per pupil over the next three years.

"It will help us transform schools by tackling the repairs backlog which has built up over the last 20 years and will mean a new beginning for thousands of crumbling schools, as their leaking roofs, crumbling masonry and temporary huts are replaced," he said.

"For too long, many of our schools have had to live with poorly maintained accommodation."

The new programme is in addition to the government's "New Deal for Schools" initiative, which has already provided money for repairs and refurbishment at 6,000 schools.

David Blunkett: "It's unique in British history"

But the General Secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers, Nigel de Gruchy, said he was concerned that many schools would miss out on the new money.

The bidding process under which schools and local authorities submit building proposals to the Department for Education and Employment was to blame, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"It's got lots of faults and it tends to reward those schools, those authorities who know how to submit the best bids.

"It doesn't necessarily reflect those schools in those areas which are most in need."

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