A lack of power over academy admissions is leaving councils ill-equipped to meet their statutory duties and manage the fall-out from London’s plunging pupil numbers, the government has been warned.
Falling birth rates and a post-Covid exodus of families from the capital have squeezed budgets in primaries as they struggle to fill reception classrooms.
With grim forecasts predicting the number of four-year-olds in some areas of London will drop up to 15 per cent by 2027, borough chiefs have slashed admission totals and even decided to close schools.
But while they can determine reductions in local authority-maintained schools, their powers do not extend to academies.
