Academies
(asked on 17th December 2014) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of reserves held by academies in each year since 2006-07.
The table below sets out academy trusts’ total cash holdings at the end of the four most recent financial years. Academy trusts’ cash is the best representation of reserves available to trusts.
Date | Number of academy trusts open | Total cash, £ millions | Average cash per academy trust, £ thousands |
31 March 2011 | 377 | 62 | 165 |
31 March 2012 | 1,524 | 1,199 | 130 |
31 March 2013 | 2,108 | 1,859 | 88 |
31 March 2014 | 2,585 | 2,469 | 96 |
We do not have comparable records of academy trusts’ cash holdings for financial years 2006-07 to 2009-10.
The average cash held by academy trusts has fallen over the four years partly due to many smaller academy trusts opening more recently and holding less cash. We regard academy trusts’ cash holdings as reasonable, typically representing enough to fund one month’s operations after deducting current liabilities. Academy trusts cannot borrow and need to hold enough cash to manage their solvency prudently.