Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools have received capital funding in each financial year since 2015-16, broken down by region.

The department provides annual capital funding to support sufficient school places and to maintain and improve the condition of the school estate. In addition, the department also delivers capital building programmes, including the free schools programme, the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) and the new School Rebuilding Programme (SRP). Schools included in the PSBP can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/priority-school-building-programme-psbp. The first 100 schools in the new SRP can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme/school-rebuilding-programme.

For a breakdown of the Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (CDEL) in each financial year since 2015-16 please see the table below:

Note: 2015-2019 figures are taken from the DfE accounts which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dfe-annual-reports.

The figures for 2020-21 will be published in due course. This year, the department is providing £5.6 billion of capital funding to support the education sector. Capital funding for years beyond 2021-22 will be determined at the Spending Review.

A large proportion of schools’ capital funding is delivered through annual allocations to local authorities, larger multi-academy trusts, and large voluntary-aided school bodies. This means that the majority of annual capital funding is not allocated at school level and investment decisions are taken at a local level. Some allocations, such as those to large multi-academy trusts, will also cut across regional boundaries.

The department allocates Basic Need capital funding annually to local authorities, to support them to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places in their area: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations. In February 2021, we announced nearly £500 million to provide places for September 2023.

The department also allocated £365 million across 2018 to 2021 through the Special Provision Capital Fund, specifically aimed at helping local authorities develop provision for children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-provision-capital-funding-for-pupils-with-ehc-plans.

A further £300 million in High Needs Provision Capital Allocations was allocated in the financial year 2021-22 to support the delivery of new places for children with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-provision-capital-allocations.

The government’s free schools programme has delivered hundreds of new schools and provided thousands of good new school places across the country. Information on the current and pipeline schools in that programme is provided in the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-schools-successful-applications.

Since 2015, the department has allocated £11.3 billion in annual capital funding to improve the condition of the school estate, including £1.8 billion committed in the 2021-22 financial year. Condition funding allocations for this year, and links to allocations from previous years, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding#funding-allocations-for-the-2021-to-2022-financial-year. Local authorities, larger multi-academy trusts, and large voluntary-aided school bodies (such as dioceses) receive an annual School Condition Allocation to invest in maintaining and improving the condition of the buildings for which they are responsible. Smaller and stand-alone academy trusts, voluntary-aided schools not part of larger bodies, and sixth form colleges, instead bid into the Condition Improvement Fund each year. All schools also receive funding to spend on their capital priorities through an annual Devolved Formula Capital allocation.