A “significant barrier” to the academisation of church schools looks set to be lifted after the government revived a law change from its scrapped schools bill.
Many Church of England and Catholic schools operate on sites owned by special charitable trusts.
But under a legal technicality, when they academise and move site, councils currently only have to give these trusts a 125-year lease – whereas maintained schools would be handed land freehold.
The Department for Education pledged last year to end this “unequal” setup by mandating that councils hand over sites freehold. In exchange, trusts will hand over their old sites or pay councils the proceeds from the sale.
