Conservative governments spent £325m creating 67 free schools that subsequently failed or disappeared, many through lack of demand, according to data revealed by a freedom of information request.
The figures from the Department for Education (DfE) show that the government committed more than £10bn to building new schools between 2014-15 and 2023-24, compared with £6.8bn for rebuilding existing schools, which critics say left England with a backlog of crumbling and decaying buildings.
So the claim is 3% of the budget was wasted. Given the norm in government spending that’s pissant, isn’t it, trivia.
Yes, but it was spent on FREEDOM (oh, the humanity!). Of course the socialists will be complaining about it.
Also child demographics can change quickly and dramatically. Populations are far more mobile than they used to be.
All the schools that I knew in my old abode of Tooting have gone or been amalgamated.My old Alma Mater is undersubscribed by 300 pupils.
It’s just the operation of a market. The attrition rate appears to be favourable compared with, say, the restaurant rade..
So, something was tried and we found out what works and what doesn’t, you’d think the Guardian would be advocation for more of the successes not whinging over the failures.
The planning was not by the Guardian nomenklatura so of course they are against it.
If it were by a Labour government, this wouldn’t be a Guardian story.
Given the shining beacon that is Michaela, a few failures I would have thought were an acceptable price to pay?
And what is the failure rate of free schools compared with fucking awful failing state schools that can’t be closed?
The alternative would have been the entire 10 billion budget spent on a more thorough approach to planning that would have eliminated this 300 million “waste”. The planning process would still be running and yet to deliver any new schools, and need a few billion more to complete the planning process before the implementation phase could begin.