Schools: Buildings

(asked on 12th September 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been allocated for new school builds and extensions in the next two years.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 9th October 2018

The Government has committed to invest around £23 billon in the school estate between 2016-17 and 2020-21 to deliver new school places and rebuild and replace buildings in the worst condition. This includes funding for new buildings and school expansions in England.

A large proportion of this funding is delivered through annual allocations to local authorities (LAs) and larger multi-academy trusts (MATs), which then prioritise investment in their estates based on detailed local knowledge. This includes basic need funding to LAs to meet their duty to ensure there are enough places for children in their areas. In response to the needs of LAs, the Department has allocated £1.7 billion in funding to LAs for 2018-19 and 2019-20. They can then use this funding to build new schools or to expand a school within their area, depending on local priorities.

Since 2015, the Department has allocated a total of £5.6 billion to schools and those responsible for school buildings to maintain and improve the condition of the estate, including £1.4 billion in 2018-19. Smaller and stand-alone academy trusts bid for condition funding from the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) each year and in 2018-19, we allocated £524 million through the CIF main round. Published data on current and future capital allocations is available on the GOV.UK website.

Alongside these allocations, the Department also delivers major building programmes centrally. This includes the £4.4 billion Priority School Building Programme, which is rebuilding or refurbishing more than 500 school buildings in the poorest conditions across the country, and the free schools programme.

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