Revealed: how annual capital bill for free school projects rivalled DfE’s spend on rebuilding all other schools in England

The amount of money laid out by the government on creating new free schools appears at least to have rivalled the amount it spent on rebuilds across the rest of the schools estate in England, new analysis by this website suggests.

Construction and site acquisition costs for 221 free schools opening over the years 2011 to 2018 ran to £1.7 billion, the latest available data from the DfE reveal.

However, the true total cost of opening all free schools will be much higher than this, as the government, which has gone three-and-a-half years since it last published data on this, has not revealed the cost to the taxpayer of a further 638 institutions.

The data, which I combine in an analysis below with National Audit Office information on the shortfall in DfE funding for wider school rebuilding works, is likely to raise further questions over government culpability for the current buildings crisis, which has seen more than 100 schools kept closed for the new term over safety fears.

This analysis comes after Jonathan Slater, the DfE’s permanent secretary from 2016 to 2020, told the BBC’s Today programme yesterday that Conservative-led governments had prioritised their free schools policies above the need to rebuild the rest of the schools estate and keep children safe.  

The detail: how much has DfE been spending and asking for on school buildings?