School buildings and capital funding (England)

Changes in departmental capital spending since 2009-10

In financial year 2023-24 capital spending by the Department for Education was around £6.2 billion in cash terms and £6.4 billion in real terms 2024-25 prices (after adjusting for inflation). This includes capital spending on schools as well as other establishments such as early years, or further education providers.

Overall, between 2009-10 and 2023-24, Department for Education capital spending declined by 17% in cash terms and 42% in real terms.

Planned capital spending for 2024-25 is around £6.1 billion, which is a 5% real terms decrease compared to 2023-24.

School Rebuilding Programme

On 29 June 2020 the then government announced what the Education Secretary described in the House as “a 10-year, multi-wave rebuilding programme for schools,” to replace “poor-condition and ageing school buildings, with modern, energy-efficient designs.”

The first 100 projects for the School Rebuilding Programme were announced in two stages in February 2021 and July 2021. A consultation followed on prioritising schools for further phases of the programme. The government published its response in February 2022.

The programme has since been expanded to a current total of 518 projects.

DfE Annual Reports: A significant risk

The Department for Education’s annual report for the financial year 2021-22, published in December 2022, identified the condition of school buildings, particularly those built between 1945-70, as one of six ‘significant risks’ the Department was managing.

The department’s most recent annual report, for 2023-24, said the risk from school buildings remained critical.

National Audit Office reports

The National Audit Office published a report on the Condition of School Buildings in June 2023.

The report said that, “following years of underinvestment, the estate’s overall condition is declining and around 700,000 pupils are learning in a school that the responsible body or DfE believes needs major rebuilding or refurbishment.”

The NAO said that the rate of school rebuilding is significantly below what the Department for Education estimated was required to maintain the school estate, and that there was also an unknown number of schools that may need rebuilding due to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

In January 2025, as part of a wider report on Maintaining public service facilities, the NAO identified a £13.8bn maintenance backlog in English schools, as of October 2024.

Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC)

There have been serious concerns about the use of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in school construction. RAAC is a lightweight, ‘bubbly’ form of concrete commonly used in construction between the 1950s and mid-1990s.

In August 2023, it was announced that a number of schools had been told that they may need to shut buildings following the discovery of RAAC. This followed earlier closures and relocations of schools where RAAC has been discovered.

In February 2024, the government confirmed its plans to permanently remove RAAC from all affected schools and colleges in England.

At 22 October 2024 the number of schools and colleges with confirmed RAAC was 237.