A New Government and an updated Academies Trust Handbook (ATH) – but what does it all amount to?

It appears that the new Labour administration is currently reviewing several spending commitments made by the proceeding government. There are a number of questions that will need to be resolved in the near future over capital spending across the education sector.

Will the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) continue?

With an estimated cost of circa £12 billion to build 500 new schools, would the investment be better spent on addressing the 22,000-school backlog funding chasm?

Will the policy decision to remove RAAC from all affected schools continue?

It is widely thought that the list of 250 schools thus far identified, is likely to grow, and would remedial works not represent better value for money?

When will the sector be advised on outstanding Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) awards Information? The 866 published awarded projects on the 27th March was the lowest number in the ten-year history of the funding stream and resulted in the highest number of submitted appeals. The appeals have been awaiting adjudication by the DfE since the deadline date of May 6th.

Of the 866 CIF awards, 40 were held back pending further clarification. Then on 23rd May, word circulated across the sector that an indeterminate number of awarded projects were to be subjected to additional due diligence from the DfE.

Further reports mention the trusts themselves are being held accountable for services more traditionally associated with the provision provided by their consultants.

There is anecdotal sector evidence that other funding decisions have also been delayed whilst the DfE applies greater scrutiny to related energy and capital funding projects.

This is further reinforced by the letter from David Withey, the ESFA’s CEO, that accompanied the publication of ATH 2024, which advised schools that failure to demonstrate effective estate strategy could now result in a Notice to Improve (NtI) order. The impact this could have on smaller less well-resourced academy schools to prepare future bids could prove detrimental.

The sector welcomed clarification over trusts‘ ability to use finance vehicles such as operating and finance leases, for energy-saving installations like LED lighting and classroom replacement buildings but did not extend to offers to reduce CAPEX challenges for solar PV was both puzzling and disappointing, especially given other government commitments to investment in renewable energy technology required to meet decarbonisation targets.

Thus far the new administration has been reticent to make costed commitments to levels of financial investment in the school estate.

What is clear is that they will require market involvement and for this to happen, the ATH will need to go much further in allowing trusts to borrow. One obvious measure would be for trusts to be subject to credit ratings and affordability criteria to borrow from approved lenders.

Tim Warneford, August 2024.

You can contact me at tim@warnefordconsulting.com