Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allocating funding for the building of new schools to replace those with high carbon emissions.

In June 2020, the government announced the new School Rebuilding Programme. The department has confirmed the first 100 schools as part of a commitment to 500 rebuilding and refurbishment projects over the next decade. The programme will replace poor condition and ageing school buildings with modern, energy efficient designs, delivering new buildings that will be net zero carbon in operation, and more resilient to future climate change.

The department’s consultation on the approach to prioritising schools for future places in the programme closed on 8 October 2021 and we plan to set out further details in early 2022.

The department also allocates capital funding each year to those responsible for school buildings to improve and maintain the condition of the school estate. Condition funding can be used to invest in improving energy efficiency.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy set up the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme in 2020 to provide grants for eligible public sector bodies, including schools, to fund energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation measures.