Billions being spent on building free schools whilst state schools crumble in need of £13.8billion repairs
Report from the Government’s spending watchdog warned money is being wasted on new free schools in areas where they aren't needed
BILLIONS are being spent building new free schools in England while crumbling state schools face a £13.8bn bill for repairs, a hard-hitting report reveals today.
The Government’s spending watchdog said ministers had to find £2.5bn simply to buy land for 55 new free schools it has pledged to build by 2020.
But a further £6.7bn is needed to bring existing secondaries simply up to scratch and another £7bn for them to be graded as “good”.
Ministers are under pressure to create more than 231,000 primary schools places and almost 190,000 secondary school places between now and 2021 to meet soaring demand – especially in London and the South East.
A National Audit Office report said the DfE had spent £863m buying land for free schools over the last five years – paying a “premium” price with four sites costing more than £30million.
The NAO warned while free schools were helping meet the demand for additional school places, some free schools were opening in areas where there were already plenty of places.
Commons Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier, blasted education officials for wasting cash.
She said: “The department is choosing to open new free schools in areas which do not need them and are failing to fill places.
“This is taxpayers’ money that could be used to fund much-needed improvements in thousands of existing school buildings.”
Last night free schools champion Toby Young, Director of the New Schools Network, insisted the schools were cost effective.
He said: “As the National Audit Office has said, free schools offer better value for money than previous school building programmes.
“They are also more popular with parents and more likely to be rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted than any other type of school.”
But Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner accused ministers of “wasting millions opening free schools in areas that don’t need them”.
She said: “Hundreds of secondary schools in England are already full to capacity, while thousands more are crumbling and in desperate need of repair.
“The Government needs to concentrate on increasing capacity and improving schools in the areas that need it the most.”
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Last night a Department for Educations spokesman said the free schools programme was a vital part of creating much-needed good school places.
He said: “More than three quarters of free schools have been approved in areas where there is already demand for new places and the vast majority of those inspected are rated good or outstanding by Ofsted.
“The Government is making a huge investment in the school estate of £23 billion up to 2021, to create a further 600,000 new school places, deliver 500 new free schools, and rebuild and refurbish buildings at over 500 schools.”
