It means the six can immediately start planning with around £500m funding released from 2011-12. The project in Sunderland, already in BSF's first wave, is worth £100m and the remaining five worth around £80m each.
Mr Balls also announced another six local authority projects will join the programme in three months time and another six in the last quarter of the 2009-10 - maintaining the current pace of delivery.
It means that the local authorities not yet in BSF can fast-track initial smaller projects far earlier than originally planned - with the rest of each area's schools being rebuilt or refurbished later. And it allows larger local authorities to split their full BSF building programme into smaller stages to manage their projects better.
Momentum has built quickly this year with 86 schools which have benefited from BSF investment now open, more than double the number in December.
Schools Secretary Ed Balls said:
"The Government's unprecedented investment in school buildings and new facilities has benefitted every school in every area of the country. As well as transforming the education of children, our investment is supporting local jobs and businesses, particularly in the construction industry. That's why we have brought forward almost £1 billion of capital investment for schools this year to support the economy during the recession.
"BSF is the most ambitious public building programme for decades, revamping the entire secondary school estate. The progress is undeniable - and BSF is building momentum rapidly month-by-month, term-by-term with superb facilities across the country transforming the way that teachers teach and young people learn.
"This is a watershed moment. The Government is committed to seeing BSF through and today's announcement sets out our clear and unambiguous next steps.
"These are challenging times when every penny of taxpayer's money is rightly scrutinised - but I am clear that allowing six new projects joining BSF each quarter this year is prudent and affordable and means that areas will benefit as soon as possible."
Schools Minister Vernon Coaker said:
"Repeated independent evaluations show that BSF is delivering - with the National Audit Office making it crystal clear that it is making it easier for local authorities to invest and plan for the long-term; that the project has strong management in place and costs are under control.
"The earliest waves of BSF rightly targeted areas with the highest level of need. Our plans from now on will give the remaining local authorities more scope to target pockets of deprivation or underperforming schools sooner or get more value for money by breaking down their BSF programmes into several stages."
The shift to rolling starts rather than waves of local authorities joining the programme was announced and consulted on in April 2008.
The preliminary revised national BSF programme was announced in March 2009 - with the six local authorities announced today and all subsequent proposed projects' only getting the go-ahead after rigorous evaluation of their readiness to deliver by BSF delivery agency, Partnerships for Schools.
Partnerships for Schools Chief Executive Tim Byles said:
"Today's anouncement of continued commitment sends a clear message to local authorities, schools and parents the length and breadth of the country that BSF will provide 21st century schools for every young person.
"As well as delivering the brand new facilities that teachers and pupils deserve to every community, this commitment safeguards tens of thousands of jobs on the ground in what continue to be challenging economic conditions.
"Teachers, parents and pupils in the 86 schools already open bear witness to the positive difference that BSF is making in their local community. Building on the work already done, we will work in partnership with the new authorities as we move into the second half of the programme to ensure that this experience and impact is replicated across the country.
"More broadly, as we assume responsibility for the delivery of all schools capital programmes in the next few months, we will be working with every local authority in England to ensure that taxpayers get maximum value from every education pound spent."
Primary school place shortage
Ministers today also confirmed they are setting up a £200m fund to build permanent classrooms for reception pupils over the next two years in areas facing exceptional growth in demand.
The funding will be available to local authorities facing a 15 per cent growth in four and five-year-olds across their areas between September 2008 and September 2011 or very high localised pockets of growth within their boundaries - which are higher than the authority's own original pupil projections.
All bidders will be expected to build extra permanent places by September 2011 and money will be held back from future capital funding allocations where actual pupil numbers fall short of predictions.
Local authorities will have four weeks to bid for the funding and allocations will be made in September - with funding released in 2010-11.
Annual pupil number figures, published in April, show increases in reception class pupils between January 2008 to January 2009 in 126 local authorities - with an average growth of 3.3 per cent.
But there are specific areas, particularly in London, which are forecasting with much larger, unanticipated demands over the next three years and have a shortage of primary school places across their area.
The funding comes on top of the £1.75 billion of additional investment being made available through the Primary Capital Programme over the next two years - supported by significant investment from local authorities.
Over 700 primary schools have already been rebuilt or completely refurbished since 1997 - but the Primary Capital Programme will extend that and revamphalf of all primary and primary-age special schools by 2022-23 as part of local authorities' long-term school rebuilding plans.
The funding is also on top of the £939 million brought forward from 2010-11 school budgets to 2009-10 with a further £30 million for play facilities - to accelerate thousands of school modernisation projects across England by 12 months and boost the construction industry.
Ed Balls said:
"Parents should be able to send their children to a local school they want - and by law, it is down to local authorities to make sure there are sufficient school places available to meet parental demand across their areas.
"Birth rate has been rising nationally since 2001 and the Government has already specifically made available funding to deal with projected pupil growth - which has to depend on accurate population projections.
"But while it is clear that some local authorities simply did not plan or budget effectively for how rising birth rates would affect them locally, others are facing exceptional, unanticipated rises in demand for reception-age pupils over the next few years because of a combination of much localised circumstances.
"This is not about bailing out poor planning. It is absolutely right to give additional funding, on top of record capital investment, to build extra classrooms and facilities in areas facing sudden increases in demand which could not reasonably have been forecast. Housing children in mobile or hired classrooms is only a temporary solution - so it is vital that local authorities facing the greatest pressure on their capital budgets address these issues urgently using this emergency funding and the longer-term Primary Capital Programme."
The £200m has been made available from a £400m DCSF contingency fund set aside last year to support any slowdown in private sector support for BSF due to the credit crunch. Treasury has agreed that is prudent to release the funding because Private Finance Initiative deals continue to close.
