Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, under what circumstances Ministers in his Department are consulted when a local authority is seeking to dispose of school land for new housing development.

The Secretary of State for Education has the primary responsibility for giving consent for the disposal of school land. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is only consulted if the disposal is for less than the market value, and the reasons for disposal or discount fall outside the General Disposal Consent 2003. The Disposal Consent may be found in ODPM Circular 06/2003 at this web address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disposal-of-land-for-less-than-the-best-consideration-that-can-reasonably-be-obtained-circular-06-2003. Otherwise, section 123 of the Local Government Act 1972 says that local authorities may dispose of land in any manner they wish.