Could this be the most expensive free school in England?

The government is to revisit plans to site a small primary free school in a former police station in Hampstead, north London, which it bought in 2014 for �14.1 million.

Proposals for Abacus Belsize primary may stand to make it the most expensive free school in England, with the site costs alone equating to approaching £70,000 for each child among the school’s intended eventual capacity of 210 pupils.

With costs of refurbishment the eventual bill to the taxpayer could be well above this, and certainly enough to fund the running costs of a conventional school of the same size for more than 10 years.

It is unclear if any other plans the Department for Education might have for the site would offset these costs: in some other free schools projects, housing developments are being used to set against against costs, though this is not seemingly being proposed in this case.

In any event, the seemingly eye-watering sums involved, given the pressures on education budgets and in an area which appears already to be well-stocked with schools, invite further analysis.