100 new free schools a year: achievable or not?

Will Theresa May’s target of “building” 100 free schools annually for the rest of this Parliament be achieved?

The short answer, looking at the available statistics so far, is that it is likely to be a very challenging target. In addition, the setting of it must raise the obvious question: will quantity be put above quality in the acceptance of free schools projects?

The promise(s)

The 100-frees-a-year target originated in the Conservatives’ ill-fated 2017 general election manifesto, the party pledging there that it would “continue with our programme of free schools, building at least a hundred new free schools a year”. With the manifesto applying for the length of the Parliament, this would take us to 2022.

Then, last month in her also-ill-fated-but-arguably-for-different-reasons party conference speech, May re-iterated the pledge, saying her government would be “building 100 new free schools in every year of this Parliament. Not because our ideology says so… but because free schools work [Hmm…sadly, that’s a bit sweeping for me, as the statistics below may demonstrate…]. And it’s the right thing to do.”