I am today announcing over £1 billion of new capital investment to support local authorities to create mainstream school places needed by September 2028. I am also confirming details of the £740 million of capital funding for the 2025-26 financial year to support the creation of school places for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision (AP), and details of £2.1 billion in capital funding for the 2025-26 financial year to improve the condition of the school and sixth-form college estate in England.
High and rising school standards for all children is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve children’s outcomes through our plan for change. Ensuring that there are sufficient high-quality school places in well-maintained buildings is a critical part of driving forward this agenda.
Funding for mainstream school places
Today’s funding announcement will support local authorities to meet their statutory duty and create school places needed by September 2028.
This funding, £640 million of which will be allocated in the 2026-27 financial year, with a further £400 million allocated in 2027-28, is on top of almost £1.5 billion of basic need capital funding that has previously been announced to create new school places needed between 2024 and September 2026.
Funding for SEND and AP places
I am also confirming the details of the previously announced £740 million to support children and young people with SEND or who require AP.
This funding can be used to adapt classrooms to be more accessible for children with SEND, to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs, and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.
Condition funding
We have increased funding to improve the condition of the estate for financial year 2025-26 to £2.1 billion, up from £1.8 billion committed for financial year 2024-25. This is in addition to our continued investment in the school rebuilding programme and targeted support for schools with RAAC.
The funding for financial year 2025-26 includes almost £1.4 billion in school condition allocations for eligible responsible bodies, including local authorities, large multi-academy trusts and large voluntary aided school bodies, such as dioceses, to decide how to invest across their schools. Allocations are partly informed by updated data on the relative condition of schools. It also includes almost £470 million available through the condition improvement fund, an annual bidding round for essential maintenance projects at schools in small and stand-alone academy trusts, small voluntary-aided bodies and sixth form colleges. Successful applications to the fund will be announced later in the spring. Almost £220 million in devolved formula capital (DFC) will be allocated directly for schools to spend on their own capital priorities.
Full details of this announcement, including the allocations for basic need, high needs, and condition funding, have been published on the Department for Education section on the gov.uk website here:
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