Rejoice, rejoice seems to be the basic theme of the budget for education and therefore suppliers, or for as long as Gordon Brown keeps his hands on the levers of power.

His plan to raise average spending to £8000 per student to try and match the independent sector could be a huge change, although it’s perhaps best viewed as a political promise rather than something to be factored into business plans.

So where is the majority of the money going? Building and rebuilding of schools, IT and reducing class sizes seem to be the core of what is being proposed. For private sector suppliers this is good news; however, there are two caveats. Firstly, the plans presume that Gordon Brown will still be in charge of the country and this is not a given. Secondly, the new funding comes during the move to three-year school funding settlements and while the DfES itself is trying to cut its spending by £4.3b.

In effect this was not really about finance, it was the battle cry of an aspiring Prime Minister spouting a derivation of the exhortations we heard a decade ago from the present incumbent when he shouted that his manifesto was, ‘Education, education, education’!