Edward Argar

For the 2021/22 financial year, Leicestershire local authority, which covers Charnwood constituency, received a School Condition Allocation (SCA) of £4,090,736 to spend on improving the condition of its maintained schools. As SCA is allocated to responsible bodies, not individual schools, we cannot provide a school or constituency level breakdown of this funding.

Large multi-academy trusts and voluntary-aided school bodies, such as dioceses, also receive SCA. These allocations can cover schools across multiple local authority boundaries, so are not included in the figure above. All SCA funding is published on GOV.UK.

Smaller multi-academy or stand-alone trusts, voluntary-aided schools not part of SCA eligible bodies, and sixth form colleges are instead able to bid to the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) each year. In the 2021-22 CIF round, there were six successful projects across four schools in Charnwood, totalling £1,110,079.52.

There were three projects included in the second phase of the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP2) in Charnwood Constituency. They are: Highcliffe Primary School and Community Centre, The Cedars Academy, and Bishop Ellis Catholic Voluntary Academy. All three projects began prior to the financial year 2021/22 and were handed over before the start of the financial year, with one school, The Cedars Academy, completing construction in the financial year 2021/22. These schools have benefitted from a combined total of £17,845,842 of funding.

Following the developer-led junction improvement scheme that was delivered in February this year for the new Leicester City Football Club training ground, a Stage 3 Road Safety Audit was carried out at this location. The designers of the scheme are currently developing an additional package of works to address the issues identified that relate to the right turn movement of traffic from Park Hill Lane onto the A46. Until these works are undertaken, the network remains under the jurisdiction of Leicester City Football Club.

A new dedicated electric train service between Corby and London St Pancras, with frequency doubled to two train per hour has been delivered, enabling peak time long distance services to and from London to be accelerated. The new fleet of bi-mode long distance trains, committed to as part of the East Midlands 2019 rail franchise agreement, are under construction and should enter service in the next couple of years.

As a result of the impact of the pandemic, the Department are negotiating to replace the 2019 franchise agreement with a directly awarded National Rail Contract which will enable more flexibility to develop service and rolling stock plans that reflect the changes to travel habits that the pandemic caused.

This Government remains committed to ensuring that funding allocations for councils are based on an up-to-date assessment of their needs and resources. We will continue to work closely with the sector and other stakeholders to look at the challenges and opportunities facing the sector before consulting on any potential changes.