Plummeting pupil numbers will wipe out the need for the equivalent of 80 per cent of the new school places created since 2010, analysis of government data suggests.
Statistics published today reveal 1,161,976 school places have been created since 2010, most of them in primary schools. They were needed to accommodate a population bulge caused by a baby boom in the 2000s.
But the bulge is starting to move out of the school system, and the latest government pupil number predictions anticipate the population of primary and secondary schools will fall by 935,753 between 2022 and 2032.
Between 2010 and 2022, 720,770 primary places were created. Between 2022 and 2032, primary pupil numbers are due to drop by 760,747.
