Billions are being spent building new free schools in England while crumbling state schools face a £13.8bn bill for repairs, a hard-hitting report from the government’s spending watch dog claims.
The National Audit Office said ministers had to find £2.5bn simply to buy land for 55 new free schools it has pledged to build by 2020.
But a further £6.7bn is needed to bring existing secondaries up to scratch and another £7bn for them to be graded as “good”.
The report said the Department for Education had spent £863m buying land for free schools over the past five years – paying a “premium” price with four sites costing more than £30m.
The NAO warned that while free schools were helping meet the demand for additional school places, some were opening in areas where there were already plenty of places.
Ministers are under pressure to create more than 231,000 primary school places and almost 190,000 secondary school places between now and 2021 to meet soaring demand – especially in London and the south east.
Commons Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier criticised education officials for wasting cash.
She said: “The department is choosing to open new free schools in areas which do not need them and are failing to fill places.
“This is taxpayers’ money that could be used to fund much-needed improvements in thousands of existing school buildings.”
The report said it would cost an estimated £6.7bn to return all school buildings to satisfactory or better condition. Common defects include problems with electrics and external walls, windows and doors.
It said a further £7.1bn to bring parts of school buildings from satisfactory to good condition.
The report also criticised the targeting of funding for repairing school buildings and said the forecast deterioration in the condition of the school estate is a significant risk to long-term value for money. Responsibility for maintaining the condition of the school estate is devolved to local bodies.
The report said: “The department does not currently know with certainty how the condition of the estate is changing over time. However, it estimates that the cost of returning all school buildings to satisfactory or better condition will double between 2015-16 and 2020-21, even with current levels of funding, as many buildings near the end of their original design life.
“This position, combined with weak accountability for the condition of the school estate and weak incentives for schools to maintain their buildings, creates a significant risk that defects will go unrepaired and will cost more to address in the future.”
