The cost of remedial work to repair or replace all defective elements in the school estate in England has risen to £11.4bn, a group of consultants has found.
The Department for Education’s latest Condition of School Buildings Survey, produced by Aecom, Capita, Faithful+Gould and RLB, collected data on 22,031 schools across nine geographical regions of England. The work involved 300 building surveyors and engineers collecting condition data at any one time.
Data collected included summary asset data about a school’s size and construction type, an assessment of the condition of each building, and management data such as electrical and fixed wiring test certificates and fire risk assessments.
The cost of repairs to England’s schools has risen significantly on the £6.7bn estimated to be required in the National Audit Office’s 2017 report on schools capital, based on data from the 2012-14 Property Data Survey for the Department for Education.
Schools in the South East and West Midlands each have £1.7bn of condition need, the highest in the state. Schools in the North East have the lowest total condition need, with below £600m.
Schools in the West Midlands have the highest average condition need per school at over £700,000 and the second highest condition need per m2 at £193/m2. The only region with a higher condition need per m2 is the East Midlands, at £194/m2. Most regions have similar condition needs per m2 throughout their schools, with East of England, North East, North West, South East and Yorkshire and the Humber all being between £130/m2 and £153/m2.
The regions with the lowest condition need per m2 are London, with £117/m2 and the South West with £98/m2, the only region with a condition need below £100/m2.
For teaching blocks still being used in the school estate, the 1960s is the decade with the largest representation in terms of available floor area, and is over 4,000,000m2 and over 50% greater than the decade either side of it. The two decades in the 21st century are the next highest for available floor area.
