Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government plans to retrofit all education buildings to help achieve the Net Zero target by 2030.

The Department supports sustainability through our capital funding and programmes, both to reduce carbon and save schools money on energy.

Since 2015, the Department has allocated £11.3 billion to maintain and improve school buildings, including improving energy efficiency. This includes £1.8 billion in the current financial year 2021/22.

In addition, the ten year school rebuilding programme has launched with a commitment to 500 rebuilding projects over the next decade. This will replace poor condition and ageing school buildings with modern, energy efficient designs, transforming education for thousands of pupils.

The Further Education (FE) Capital Transformation Fund delivers the Government’s £1.5 billion commitment to upgrade the estate of both FE colleges and designated institutions in England. This will target colleges in the worst condition whilst supporting the Government's objectives on achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2020, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy set up the £1 billion Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme which provided grants for eligible public sector bodies, including schools, to fund energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation measures. Higher education institutions were also eligible for these grants. Phase 2 of this scheme has recently been announced and will allocate £75 million of funding.

More broadly, the Department is working with colleagues across government on carbon reduction and energy efficiency and developing thinking on how future capital programmes can contribute further.

Further details on capital funding for the period beyond this financial year will be set out at the next Spending Review.