Schools: Capital Funding

Robin Walker Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2022 Written Statements

[The Minister for School Standards (Mr Robin Walker)]

My noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the School System, (Baroness Barran), has made the following statement:

Today, I am announcing capital funding to support the creation of new school places and improve the condition of the school estate. This investment will support the Government’s priority to ensure that every child has the opportunity of a place at a good school, whatever their background.

I am announcing £746 million to support local authorities to create school places needed for September 2024 and an additional £195 million to create places for September 2025.

I am also announcing £1.8 billion of capital funding in financial year 2022-23 for improving the condition of the school estate. This includes:

£1.1 billion in school condition allocations (SCA) for local authorities, large multi-academy trusts and large voluntary-aided school bodies—such as dioceses—to invest in maintaining and improving the condition of their schools.

Almost £500 million for the condition improvement fund (CIF). This is an annual bidding round for essential maintenance projects at schools in small and stand-alone academy trusts, small voluntary-aided bodies and sixth form colleges. Outcomes of the 2022-23 bidding round will be announced in due course.

Over £200 million of devolved formula capital (DFC) funding allocated directly for schools to spend on their capital priorities.

The funding announced today is part of the total £19.4 billion of capital funding announced at the 2021 spending review to support the education sector between 2022-23 and 2024-25. These funding allocations will allow local authorities and other responsible bodies to plan ahead with confidence, to invest strategically to ensure they deliver good school places for every child who needs one, and to maintain and improve the condition of the school estate to support effective education.

Full details have been published on the Department for Education section on the www.gov.uk website.

[HCWS721]