Ministers have scaled back plans to open 100 new or refurbished school buildings by the end of this year as part of the é45 billion drive, the Conservatives said.
Figures from Education Minister Jim Knight showed only 14 new schools would be opened during 2007, with further delays next year.
The Chancellor has championed the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative, promising to rebuild or refurbish all 3,500 secondary schools in England by 2020.
But officials are reported to be revising the targets after slow progress so far.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne said: "Gordon Brown makes great promises about education but when you look at what is actually happening in our schools, you find those promises are meaningless.
"The Chancellor makes Tony Blair look like an amateur when it comes to spinning."
Under the Department for Education and Skills' original plan, 100 new schools were scheduled to open in 2007.
But schools minister Mr Knight revealed in answers to parliamentary questions that just 14 would now be ready by the end of the 2007-8 financial year.
Another 200 new schools were expected to open next year. Mr Knight said only 56 would be ready in time.
The top official running the programme told The Times that the early forecasts had been "too optimistic" and that the timings should be "reset".
Shadow education secretary David Willetts said parents had been "let down" by the Government.
"For years now parents and pupils have been promised new schools," Mr Willetts said.
"Now they hear that the building programme is being held up by red tape, and that funding is being skewed towards Labour areas."
A DfES spokesman defended the BSF programme.
He said: "Addressing decades of under-investment will not happen overnight - that is why this Government has committed record investment in school buildings across the board.
"We have addressed the key challenges to delivering this unprecedented building project.
"We have streamlined the planning and design process, improved management and leadership ability at local authority level and are now making good ground.
"In addition to BSF, we are already giving record amounts, every year to every school - a six-fold increase in capital investment in schools from é643 million to é6.4 billion this year.
"It is set to rise to é8 billion by 2010/11. We are investing a further é7 billion over 15 years to refurbish half the 17,000 primary schools in England." Tweet
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We seem to be investing billions in britain when in reality we have no means to pay for these measures? we have very little industry and we are loosing jobs to the third world on a massive scale? where is this government going to get all this money from ? Yet more borrowing and tax rises? and still have to pay for this massive war we have in the east? STOP FOOLING US ALL GORDON.
The money comes from Private Finance Initiatives which means local authorities will be in hock for the next 25 years - which will cost us all dearly. The admission that Building Schools for the Future will see consolidation of schools ie school closures is telling. We're already seeing local authorities trying to close established and successful schools in their unseemly haste to get their hands on BSF money. But shiny new schools do not deliver good education, teachers, parent and pupils do. So stuff BSF - let's see proper investment in refurbishing schools wherever possible, not amalgamations that can cause untold short term harm and are pursued only because of the way funding is structured to support new build. Every child is supposed to matter and yet BSF here in Bury and by the looks now in Salford does its best to undermine that idea.
Andy youve got it wrong my friend most of the schools are actually funded by the government?not PFIs ?
that is why this Government has committed record investment in school buildings across the board.
It is set to rise to £8 billion by 2010/11. We are investing a further £7 billion over 15 years to refurbish half the 17,000 primary schools in England
As the Plans to refurbish and replace all of the schools in Salford under BSF have now been put on the back burner, will St George's RC School in Walkden have a reprieve from closure. This school is currently oversubscribed and holds a well earned place in the city’s league tables and no-one wants to see it closed. However the local education authority is insisting it must be closed as part of BSF Plan otherwise it will not be able to rebuild and refurbish all of the other Catholic Schools. This is an absolute disgrace. They are ripping the heart out of education in this area. Another local school is only just recovering from years of being in special measures because it was forced to amalgamate seven years ago with the promise of a new school to be built under PFI. That new school is still not available although construction has finally begun, but the school will not be occupied until at least Sept 2008. In the interim, the damage caused to the education of thousands of children is criminal. Children only have one chance to learn but education is being denied them because of the crazy proposals and empty promises made by Central and Local Government