The £55 billion Government scheme to rebuild and refurbish every secondary school in England is to be axed, Michael Gove has confirmed.

The Education Secretary said the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme had been beset by "massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy".

Some 715 schools will see their re-building projects cancelled as a result of the decision.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Gove told MPs that building an airport in Hong Kong had been quicker than building new schools through BSF.

Outlining the nine steps of the BSF process, Mr Gove said: "It is perhaps no surprise that it can take almost three years to negotiate the bureaucratic process of BSF before a single builder is engaged or brick is laid.

"There are some councils which entered the process six years ago which have only just started building new schools. Another project starting this year is three years behind schedule. By contrast, Hong Kong International Airport, which was built on a barren rock in the South China Sea and can process 50 million passenger movements every year, took just six years to build - from start to finish."