Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the Government will provide more support for Hampshire County Council to cover the building condition liabilities of the Second Consortium of Local Authorities schools in that county.

The Department is investing over £24bn in school buildings from 2016- 2021 to maintain schools, rebuild and replace buildings in the worst condition, and ensure there are enough school places in the system. This includes over £10 billion allocated for maintaining and improving the condition of the school estate from 2016-2021.

Hampshire County Council received £19,367,940 in school condition allocations in 2015-16 and £19,370,943 in 2016-17 which allows them to make localised decisions to address their individual priorities such as maintaining the condition of their school estate. These are indicative of the allocation Hampshire will receive in 2017-18, which will be announced shortly. These figures do not include school condition allocations to multi-academy trusts with schools in Hampshire.

While this funding is not aimed specifically at SCOLA schools, it is allocated using a formula which takes into account data on the condition of school buildings gathered through the Property Data Survey.

The Department is updating its information on the condition of the school estate through the Condition Data Collection, which will provide information on areas of the highest condition need and drive our approach on how we invest in order to target them.

Schools in Hampshire have also received £5,009,333 in devolved formula capital in 2016-17. Fifteen academies in Hampshire also bid successfully for funding through the Condition Improvement Fund last year. We expect to announce successful projects in this year’s CIF round by April 2017.

Six schools in Hampshire are included in the £4.4 billion Priority School Building Programme aimed at rebuilding or refurbishing those school buildings in the very worst condition across the country.