Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on land purchases for new free school sites in each fiscal year since 2010-11.

There are currently 430 open free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges. When at full capacity, these schools will create over 225,000 new school places. The Department provides new free school sites on either a lease or purchases basis, depending on the local market and specific requirements of each school, to ensure value for money. Up to August 2016, the Department spent £863 million on the purchase of 175 freehold sites.

For reasons of commercial confidentiality the capital costs of individual schools, including individual land purchase costs, are not disclosed before completion and overall costs are finalised. Capital funding for open free schools, UTCs and studio schools, where costs have been finalised, are published on Gov.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-funding-for-open-free-schools.

Additional finalised capital data is due to be published in the coming months.