Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that demand for school places in Solihull is met.

Local authorities are responsible for planning and securing sufficient school places in their area, and supporting them in doing so is one of this Government’s top priorities. That is why this Government is investing £23 billion in school buildings to create 600,000 new school places, open 500 new free schools and address essential maintenance needs.

Basic need funding is allocated to local authorities to help them to create new school places. Solihull has been allocated £17 million of basic need funding for the period 2015-18. Solihull also received £4 million between 2011 and 2015.

Information on basic need allocations can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations-2015-to-2018