Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve the condition of the school estate in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.

The Education Estates Strategy outlines plans for an education estate that supports opportunity for all, backed by a 10‑year programme to renew and transform schools and colleges. This decade of national renewal is supported by unprecedented long‑term funding and £38 billion in overall education capital from 2025/26 to 2029/30.

The government has committed to capital investment through to 2034/35 to improve the condition of schools and colleges across England, investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance and renewal. This is in addition to continued investment in the School Rebuilding Programme, expanding across a further 250 schools to be selected.

The Condition Data Collection 1 programme from 2017 to 2019 showed significant variation in the condition of the estate across the country. Updated information provided by schools on the condition of their estate is being collected through the department’s 5-year Condition Data Collection 2, which will complete in 2026.