Recommendation 18

The Department has estimated that the land and buildings within the academy estate is worth £56.3 billion at 31 August 2020.43 We asked the Department about its understanding of the academy estate and any concerns it had about its condition. The Department told us that it had not identified any issues across the academy estate that were substantially different to the schools estate as whole, which tended to relate to age and construction of buildings. It explained that it had looked at the condition of buildings across the whole school estate using its condition data collection exercise over 2017–19.44 The latest condition survey results estimated that it would cost £11.4 billion to repair or replace defective elements in the school estate.45 The Department is providing £5.6 billion of capital funding to the education sector in 2021–22, of which £1.8 billion is specifically for maintaining and improving the condition of school buildings and £0.8 billion for new school places.46