Sixty per cent of urgent repair bids from small trusts that fear their school buildings could be dangerously run down have been snubbed, Schools Week can reveal.
Meanwhile, our analysis shows that more than 70 per cent of academies that don’t stump up a large chunk of cash towards repair work are being shunned for government grants.
It comes after a damning National Audit Office report found years of chronic underinvestment have meant 700,000 children are being educated in structures requiring major fixes.
The watchdog revealed a £2 billion annual funding shortfall and that more than a third of school buildings are past their “use-by date”, as the government lacks “comprehensive information on the extent of potential safety issues”.
