To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of school buildings.
Answered on
27 January 2025
This answer is a correction from the original answer.
Ensuring schools and colleges have the resources and buildings they need is a key part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every young person the best start in life.
Responsibility for keeping school buildings safe and well-maintained lies with the institutions and their responsible bodies - typically local authorities, academy trusts or voluntary aided school bodies. We support them by providing capital funding, delivering major rebuilding programmes and offering guidance and support.
Where the department is notified of a significant safety issue with a building that cannot be managed independently, the department considers additional advice and support on a case-by-case basis.
The department is working with expert groups, technical advisors and stakeholders to ensure we have an up-to-date understanding of future issues that could present themselves as the school and college estate ages. In addition to the ongoing Condition Data Collection 2, we have commissioned new research due to complete by spring 2026 which includes data analysis and field-work, with some in-depth surveys to better understand the performance of post-war education buildings.
At the Autumn Budget 2024, this government increased capital allocations to improve the condition of school buildings to £2.1 billion for 2025/26. This is £300 million more than this financial year. This is on top of targeted support for RAAC. This is part of £6.7 billion in capital overall for education in 2025/26.
We have committed £1.4 billion next year to support the current School Rebuilding Programme, which is rebuilding or significantly refurbishing buildings at 518 schools and sixth form colleges across England, prioritised on condition and safety.
We are committed to improving the condition of the estate through the department’s annual funding, the continuing School Rebuilding Programme and by fixing the problem of RAAC.
Original answer
Ensuring schools and colleges have the resources and buildings they need is a key part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every young person the best start in life.
We are committed to improving the condition of the estate through the department’s annual funding, the continuing School Rebuilding Programme and by fixing the problem of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).