Schools Must Lead Where the Autumn Budget Falls Silent

The Autumn Budget signalled a government seeking stability and prioritising long-term investment. On the one hand, this provides an opportunity to refocus on providing facilities that align with the vision from the Department for Education (DfE) for an estate which is safe, sustainable, suitable and sufficiently sized. On the other hand, the National Living Wage increase and freeze on income tax thresholds mean wage pressures will drive up supplier costs and material prices. Schools, too, will face the same pressure to increase wages as the frozen thresholds amount to a real terms increase in income tax through fiscal drag. This highlights further the need for efficiency and innovation to maintain affordability and deliver value for money in an ever changing and challenging period.

Condition improvement and SEND

The Chancellor outlined how borrowing and debt had fallen, with fiscal targets met ahead of expectations. While this should provide the stability to continue with planned investment in schools, will it be enough to act as a catalyst to spend the £13.8 billion required to address the condition of schools across England? The statement, after all, provided little by way of surety over the future of education estates.

What the increased stability does provide however, is an opportunity for schools, local authorities and multi-academy trusts alike to drive long-term, strategic planning for their estates. This will likely result in a focus on key areas in addition to the condition need, namely Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and energy efficiency upgrades.

Across England, SEND support is in a perilous position, with a continued increase in pupils requiring additional support. Most recent statistics from 2024/25 show over 1.7 million pupils (1 in 5) in England have special educational needs, and pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) increasing by over 80% since 2016. The Labour Party made several commitments within their manifesto to SEND in schools, including a focus on inclusion and reducing barriers by creating inclusive environments.

The government has since delayed the issue of its white paper setting out reforms to SEND, and while it did commit to absorbing SEND costs from 2028, that still leaves councils with the burden of funding an unsustainable service for the next two years. How will Labour drive this forward following the initial £740m investment announced in December 2024 to create specialist places?

Net Zero

The government remains staunch in its commitment to reach Net Zero by 2050, creating opportunities to embed sustainability in the education sector – which alone accounts for 37% of all public sector emissions. The investment in infrastructure may support a wider ability to achieve this, however, with the closure of funding streams in the Low Carbon Skills Fund (LCSF) and Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), what will this look like for the sector? While there were questions over the suitability of PSDS in particular, its closure has been seen as a significant hindrance to schools in achieving their Net Zero ambitions. There remain areas where funding is available – the Greener Schools pilot fund by Greater London Authority and Local Net Zero Hubs as an example – however these are limited.

The DfE has launched its Net Zero Accelerator Programme, seeking to increase collaboration and take a strategic approach to decarbonisation that enables rapid implementation across the estate. But just how this will be delivered to reach Net Zero by 2050 across the sector is yet to be seen. At a time when school budgets are tight and will continue to tighten further, the challenge of allocating limited resources to address growing condition issues and the need for further investment will only increase.

Future strategy

The Chancellor informed of new and revised funding streams, albeit detail on this was limited. This included £5m for libraries in secondary schools, in addition to the £10m commitment for the same in primary schools earlier this year, and £18m to improve and upgrade playgrounds across England. While these are of course important areas of focus to improve core literacy skills and ensure suitable spaces for play and exercise – our ageing school buildings continue to pose one of the greatest challenges to the sector.

In the last month, the government has outlined its intention to issue a long-term education estates strategy, with a plan to address the well-publicised maintenance requirements over a number of years. This will include a review of the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) and challenges this poses for eligible bodies to implement long-term strategic planning. While this will provide more confidence around future funding and allocation, we are yet to understand how this latest budget will feed in to the wider DfE strategy and further support addressing the “Critical-Very Likely” risk of building failure across the estate outlined in the DfE’s annual report for 2024/25.

The DfE has outlined an increase in capital funding from £2.4bn to £2.9bn between 2025-26 and 2034-35. After accounting for inflation, this increase in real-terms is minimal, at around 1%. In reality, maintaining and improving school buildings continues to become more difficult and relying solely on government funding is fast becoming an untenable position, especially as conditions continue to deteriorate.

Driving value and efficiency through a clear, forward-looking strategy will be vital to maximise funding. It is equally important for responsible bodies to consider how to maximise the use of their sites and drive revenue through their facilities, lettings and similar opportunities to leverage the full value of all built assets in this challenging period.