Synergy News & Blog: News
20% increase in funding for school maintenance and repair
Schools in England will be able to access a share of £1.8 billion for school maintenance and repair this year. This is an increase of over 20% this financial year and is part of the government’s commitment to ‘build back better from the pandemic’. This is on top of the one-off funding injection of £560 million provided in 2020.
The government have also announced that the first wave of the School Rebuilding Programme announced last year is on track, with site inspections and detailed planning work with the 50 schools involved meaning the first rebuild projects will start from this autumn.
In a 2017 report, the National Audit Office said that “deterioration in the condition of the school estate is a significant risk to long-term value for money”.
With much of England’s school estate over 40 years old this additional funding will prove vital in helping schools to bring their buildings back to the best possible condition.
School Condition Allocations which include eligible MAT’s and Voluntary Aided School bodies (such as Dioceses) who receive a formulaic allocation was announced at the end of April. The results of the Condition Improvement Fund which is an annual bidding round for eligible academies and sixth-form colleges to apply for capital funding is due to be announced in mid-June.
As funding is announced we look forward to working with our school clients to deliver their essential condition improvement projects.
