£20m for 2,000 new school places across Warwickshire

OVER £20 million will be targeted towards providing a further 2,000 school places during the next five years.

Warwickshire County Council’s cabinet has recommended allocating the money from the council’s capital investment fund to deliver new school places where a need has been identified. The pot will also fund adaptations to buildings to enable children and young people with SEND to be educated at a mainstream setting, in line with the principles of the Delivering Better Values programme.

The new places are needed because the county’s school-aged population has grown significantly in recent years – nearly seven per cent between 2011 and 2021. This has required substantial investment in education infrastructure. Over the past ten years, the council said it has delivered over 10,000 new places through school expansions and by opening 12 new schools.

Despite these efforts, the rise in pupil numbers and the increasing cost of delivering new school places has created a funding gap. Traditional sources of funding, such as basic need grants and developer contributions, have not kept pace with the rising costs. To address this gap, the council’s cabinet has recommended allocating additional funding from the capital investment fund.

Cllr Peter Butlin (Cons, Admirals & Cawston), the council’s deputy leader and portfolio holder for finance and property, said: “Warwickshire is an attractive place to live with excellent employment opportunities and, naturally, this has seen an increase in both development and in our population, notably of school-age children. This has put pressure on the education budget.”