Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of additional school places required in (i) Telford & Wrekin and (ii) Shropshire as a result of new housing developments within existing and emerging local plans.

The department has not made an estimate of additional school places required specifically from housing developments in Telford and Wrekin or Shropshire. Local authorities have statutory responsibility for ensuring sufficient school places. School capacity survey forecasts reflect the aggregate effect of factors affecting demand, including housing, demographic change and existing capacity.

The department’s territorial teams in Regions Group, who have expertise in place planning, engage with local authorities regularly to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. Territorial teams make use of their expertise, data and regional intelligence.

The latest published ‘School capacity data’, for the 2024/25 academic year, is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-capacity-in-england-academic-year-2024-to-2025. The department expects to publish the next school capacity data in March 2027 as planned.