Asked by: Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average cost of building a primary school in England was in 2014 excluding the cost of land.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department for Education does not centrally collect data on building new primary schools across all local authorities in England. The cost of building schools varies significantly depending on local factors, including the size of the school. Local authorities report the cost per place of providing new school places through the annual School Capacity data collection. For primary schools this data has been used to produce basic need scorecards. The scorecards detail the cost per place, including for new schools, for each local authority. The latest published scorecards are for the academic year 2013/14 and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/primary-school-places-local-authority-basic-need-scorecards-2014.
Asked by: Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many special schools were rebuilt between 2010 and 2014; and what the average cost was of each such construction excluding land.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Between 2010 and 2014 the Department for Education provided £10 billion in capital funding to local authorities and academies for the purpose of providing enough school places and maintaining existing school buildings. It is for responsible bodies to decide which projects they invest this money in, including rebuilds, and we therefore do not hold data centrally about the number of and average cost of special school rebuilds carried out with this funding.
The Department for Education does directly manage the delivery of the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) and Free Schools Programme both of which build special schools.
The PSBP was launched in 2012 to address the needs of the schools in the worst condition across the country. Through the PSBP, 18 special schools are being rebuilt. By 31 Dec 2014, two of the schools within the programme had been rebuilt at a cost of £5.6 million and £5.9 million (including VAT). So far this year (2015) a further nine schools in this category have been rebuilt at a cost of £62 million (including VAT). The remaining seven schools are all in construction. PSBP is worth £4.4 billion.