The Balls approach always envisaged a commitment to
remaining within the government's future spending totals — as Gordon Brown's main
adviser in the 1990's, he had been the
leading champion of matching government plans — but this was for much later in the parliament, once Tory economic credibility had been destroyed.
But Natalie Perera, a former DfE
adviser who is now executive director at the Education Policy Institute, said she «
remained concerned» about the
lead - in time for the second consultation and the «potential regulatory changes required».