Free Schools
(asked on 6th November 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total cost of establishing free schools in each of the last five years.
The total cost of establishing a Free School includes the capital cost of acquiring a suitable site and construction or refurbishment of that site and pre and post opening grants to the school. The Department’s total capital costs of establishing Free Schools in each of the last five financial years are:
Financial year | Total capital costs |
2012-13 | £275m |
2013-14 | £704m |
2014-15 | £761m |
2015-16 | £931m |
2016-17 | £965m |
On average, the construction costs of newly built free schools are 29% lower (per square metre) than schools built under Building Schools for the Future and similar to schools built under the Priority Schools Building Programme. The department has reduced costs by taking advantage of central economies of scale and standardised building specifications.
We are in the process of making a routine update to the data that we hold on pre and post-opening grant allocations for Free Schools, University Technical Colleges and Studio Schools, following the opening of new schools in September. We will be publishing the latest data on the GOV.UK website in the coming weeks.