Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether capital funding for the maintenance of schools has increased in line with levels of inflation.

Safe and well maintained school buildings that support a high quality education are a priority for the Department. That is why the Department has allocated £15 billion since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational. Capital allocations for condition are not tied to inflation rises in England.

The Department has increased our annual condition funding to £1.8 billion over the last three years, an increase of over 20% on the 2020/21 financial year’s £1.4 billion annual allocations. The 2021 Spending Review announced a total of £19 billion of capital funding to support the education sector between 2022/23 and 2024/25. The amount spent last year, 2022/23, was the highest in a decade, and the Department’s capital budget is a record £7 billion in 2023/24.

In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme will carry out major rebuilding and refurbishment projects at 500 schools across England, with buildings prioritised based on their condition. There are now 400 projects in the programme. The most recent set of 239 schools were announced in December 2022. All new buildings in the programme will be net zero carbon in operation, making these schools much more economical.

In the 2022/23 financial year, eligible schools also received an allocation from an additional £447 million in capital funding for improvements to buildings and facilities, prioritising works to improve energy efficiency.