Letter: Prime minister told us integrated education should be the norm yet they have removed £150 million in funding

What could be achieved if that money could be reallocated to worthier causes!

Repeated surveys report that a large majority of parents would like their children to be educated in integrated schools.

Our prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has recently said that integrated education should be the norm.

What has his government just done?

They have removed funding of £150 million from the Fresh Start programme that had already been allocated for capital work on building and rebuilding 10 integrated schools.

The Millennium Integrated Primary school in Carryduff opened, as its name demonstrates, in the year 2000 after four years of hard work by local parents and residents. It is flourishing and was about to have its new permanent buildings – the plans approved and the site cleared – when without warning the funding has been removed.

I call on the secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris to restore this funding and support all those who are working to make Northern Ireland a genuine shared society.

Margaret Marshall, Belfast BT8