Councils across the country are struggling to fill a “black hole” of at least £1 billion in funding for new school places.
New research from the Local Government Association (LGA) finds that 77 per cent of local authorities say they have not received enough government funding to create the extra school places needed in their area between 2011/12 and 2016/17.
Over half of England’s 150 local authorities responded to the LGA research questions and between them reported a total shortfall of £1,062,086,377 across the five years. The LGA believes the total figure across the country is likely to be higher.
Last year, councils created an additional 90,000 primary places, but LGA analysis shows that a further 130,000 will still be needed by 2017/18. A total of 80,716 secondary places will also be required by 2019/20.
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