The true cost of bringing the school estate up to scratch is “almost certain” to be more than official estimates of £13.8 billion, warn senior civil servants.
One of Whitehall’s highest-ranking mandarins was forced to make the concession after MPs voiced concerns about inflation and the crumbly concrete crisis.
It comes after the Department for Education increased the condition pot available to the smallest academy trusts by 4 per cent.
“There have been years and years of neglect,” said Hilary Goldsmith, a school business leader.
“Schools are having to make do with tiny amounts of money to patch and fix things. The failure to invest in infrastructure now is only making bigger problems for the future.”
Further deterioration and rising building fees
According to the National Audit Office (NAO), the DfE requested £4 billion a year between 2021 and 2025, but was allocated £3.1 billion.
An NAO report, published in January, estimated that the maintenance backlog – the value of work that has been deferred or not carried out – in schools stood at £13.8 billion. This was calculated using condition data collected between 2017 and 2019.
But during a public accounts committee meeting this week, Labour MP Luke Charters noted the figure could now be “much higher” because of further deterioration, the discovery of RAAC and spiralling construction costs.
In response Cat Little, the Cabinet Office permanent secretary and civil service chief operating officer, said: “It is almost certain that that number is higher.
“That is why, if you go back to the budget in 2024, the Treasury put in significantly more money to top up the schools building programme as well as the maintenance programme.”
The Association of School and College Leaders urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to “restore this lost capital expenditure” in her spring statement. But she ignored the calls, ploughing ahead with previously agreed packages for repairs.
‘Shrinking’ condition pot
Almost £470 million has been pledged for schools eligible for the condition improvement fund (CIF), a 4.4 per cent increase on last year’s £450 million pot.
However, previous CIF application windows – which are only open to standalone academies or trusts with fewer than five schools – paid out more.
In 2020, more than £563 million was awarded, although the number of successful applications tumbled more than 60 per cent, from about 2,100 to just under 830.
Tim Warneford, an academy funding consultant, said this had left schools to vie for a “shrinking pot” amid “a sinking tide of dilapidation”.
“Given the political capital Labour has made out of the previous administration’s lack of investment, is this a figure that genuinely addresses this? Frankly, the answer is no.”
Trusts with more than five schools automatically get capital funding through the school condition allocation. The government has allocated just under £1.4 billion to eligible councils and trusts, 19 per cent more than last year.
Warneford stressed the condition threats “do not stop at RAAC”, adding there was a “significant risk around electrical infrastructure and boilers – things that can stop a school opening”.
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