Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her most recent estimate is of the funding required to establish a free school in Southend-on-Sea in 2019; and if she will make a statement.

The department has not made an estimate of the funding required to establish a free school in Southend-on-Sea in 2019.

The department has provided Southend-on-Sea Borough Council with £20 million to fund new school places between 2011 and 2017 and a further £9.5 million for 2017 to 2020. This includes nearly £5 million for school places the local authority reported were needed for September 2019.

Where a local authority has identified that an area needs enough additional places to warrant a new school, it should run a competition to identify potential providers to run the school.

Guidance on this process is available on GOV.UK via this link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/establishing-a-new-school-free-school-presumption.