DfE again blocks release of any statistics and names of schools involved in its trial of sell-offs of education sites for housing

The Department for Education has again decided not to release information about schools taking part in its controversial “land surplus pilot”, where sites or parts of sites would be sold off for housing.

In a response to my request to the DfE to review its decision over the summer not to release the data – when it said it did not have the information on which schools were taking part – the DfE has now sent a longer follow-up response back, but with the same overall outcome.

To release even any statistics on the number of these sites, and which rough area of England they are located, would “affect the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information,” the DfE concluded.

Education Uncovered has been writing about this pilot – in which a small number of schools would sell off parts or possibly all of their sites to help the government meet a national need for housing and with money then to be reinvested by the organisation controlling them – on and off since the spring.

The pilot is overseen by the DfE’s schools property company, which is called LocatED.