Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer on Schools of 4 November 2022 to Question 79332, and the expected completion of analysis by the Department, in respect of schools in the Houghton and Sunderland South constituency, what capital funding she has made available to the local authority since May 2021 to address the needs identified by the Condition of School Buildings Survey.

Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. That is why over £13 billion has been allocated since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational, including £1.8 billion committed for the 2022/23 financial year.

Local Authorities, larger multi-academy trusts and larger voluntary-aided (VA) school bodies receive an annual School Condition Allocation (SCA) to concentrate funding in priorities across the schools for which they are responsible. Smaller academy trusts, smaller VA bodies and sixth form colleges are instead able to bid into the Condition Improvement Fund.

Sunderland Local Authority received £1,636,243 in SCA on behalf of their Local Authority maintained schools in the 2021/22 financial year and £1,514,494 in the 2022/23 financial year, a total of £3,150,737. Large multi-academy trusts and large voluntary aided school bodies, also receive SCA funding to spend in schools for which they are responsible. These are not included in the figures as large academy trusts and voluntary aided school bodies will typically span Local Authority boundaries. A full breakdown of allocations can be found on GOV.UK.

In addition to SCA, the Department provides Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) to schools to spend on their capital priorities, including improving the condition of their school buildings. The Department has also recently announced an additional £447 million of capital funding for schools and sixth form colleges to spend on capital improvements to buildings and facilities, prioritising works to improve energy efficiency.

Additional capital allocations and DFC allocations for each school for the 2022/23 financial year can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding. DFC allocations for the 2021/22 financial year can be found on the National Archives website.