WHITEHALL

Labour: £500m academies black hole

The chancellor’s plan to transform every school into an academy faces a £560m funding shortage, according to a new analysis.

The chancellor's plan to transform every school into an academy faces a £560m funding shortage, according to a new analysis.

In his Budget speech on Wednesday, George Osborne declared his intention to convert every primary and secondary school in the country into an academy by 2020.

An analysis of his plan by Labour showed the schools system was facing a black hole of £560m.

There are 15,632 schools in England that are not yet academies and the average cost of conversion is £44,837, meaning academisation would cost £700m.

The Budget allocates £640m over four years to be split between meeting the cost of full academisation and the funding of a new formula to end uneven levels of funding for schools in England.

But Labour highlighted another section of the same document which earmarks £500m for the new national funding formula, leaving just £140m for academisation.

Labour's shadow education secretary, Lucy Powell, said: ‘Schools are already facing an 8% cut to their budgets, the first time education spending has fallen since the mid-1990s.

‘This £500m black hole in the education budget means that schools will be further out of pocket as a result.

‘The chancellor needs to come clean about where this money is going to come from,' she added.

Council leaders have also issued warnings about the plans, saying the move ‘defied reason'.

The Conservatives called Labour's calculations 'shoddy'.

WHITEHALL

Saving SEND

By Cllr Arooj Shah | 05 February 2025

The root causes of the crisis in SEND are systemic, and any attempts to improve outcomes will fail unless the national rhetoric and policy framework are alte...

WHITEHALL

Rays of hope for health

By Katherine Merrifield | 03 February 2025

Katherine Merrifield says that while the Devolution White Paper and the funding settlement set out positive ways local areas will be enabled to improve healt...

WHITEHALL

Local authorities ask for permission to raise council tax above referendum threshold

By Dan Peters | 20 January 2025

More councils have pleaded with ministers to increase their council tax above the 5% referendum limit without holding a poll, it has emerged.

WHITEHALL

Local government: a case of Budget blues or burdens?

By Paul Marinko | 18 December 2024

With Labour now over the hurdle of its first Budget, local government has plenty to contemplate about what it all means for the sector’s future. Norse Group ...

Popular articles by William Eichler