£1bn for school places 'not enough'

Announcing the funding in his autumn statement, the Chancellor George Osborne said the money would go toward expanding “good” schools and building 100 new free schools and academies. “Improving our education system is the best investment in a competitive economy,” he said.

Debbie Jones, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), called on the Department for Education to work with local authorities to make sure that new school places are created in the areas that need them, given significant local variation in demand.
 
“With official forecasts showing that the primary school population is going to soar by 450,000 in the next five years alone, ADCS welcomes the additional £1bn over two years to fund additional school places,” she said. 

“We hope this will go some way to easing the burden of overcrowded classrooms in some of our local authorities. It is particularly important that this funding is available to all good schools where expansion is needed to meet demand, regardless of whether these schools are academies, maintained schools or free schools.
 
“While the money for new places is welcomed, we also know from our own research that an additional £15bn, by 2015 alone, is needed to bring existing schools up to a safe and structurally sound status.”

The Local Government Association (LGA) also urged the government to work with local authorities to agree the best locations to build new schools.