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The closure of the charity British Council for School Environments last week will be a 鈥渉uge loss鈥� to the school building sector, design leaders have said.

The BCSE, which had been a vocal campaigner for best practice in school design, closed its doors last week because of a lack of funding.

Rachel Jones, chair of the British Council for School Environments (BCSE), said the decision by the charity鈥檚 board of trustees had been taken with a 鈥渉eavy heart and much sadness鈥�.

She added: 鈥淟ike many charities, we have been struggling for some time to raise enough money to keep the organisation going.

鈥淭his is partly due to the impact of the loss of capital funding in the education arena over the last two years. Despite our best efforts, it鈥檚 clear that the myriad of challenges we鈥檙e facing means we cannot continue to operate.鈥�

Jones said asking for extra cash could not be done 鈥渋n good faith鈥� in the current economic climate.

Philip Watson, Atkins design director and head of education, said the BCSE had been a 鈥渧oice of reason鈥� in the debate over school design and would be a 鈥渉uge loss鈥� to the sector.

He said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great pity that the BCSE has closed at a time when the debate around education funding and priorities in school design is raging. The BCSE created a platform for those of us who believe that design does make a difference.鈥�

Ken Shuttleworth, founder of Make Architects, agreed the closure was 鈥渁 shame鈥�.

He said: 鈥淚 think there has been a whole move around schools from [them] being great places to go towards being lower quality buildings. You have a duty to our kids to give them a nice environment to work in and the BCSE did promote that.鈥�

The closure comes less than two months after its chief executive, Nusrat Faizullah, stepped down after just over a year at the organisation. Sharon Wright had been interim chief executive.