The Department for Education spent more than £115 million on free school projects that went on to fail, new data shows.
The government has updated its register of capital spending on free schools, which details the acquisition and construction costs for all mainstream free schools, as well as information for university technical colleges and studio schools, which technically count as free schools.
Analysis of the data shows that, since 2010, £63,983,295 has been spent on eight UTCs that went on to close or announce closure. A further £28,926,340 has been shelled out for 17 studio school projects that didn’t work out, and £22,899,290 was spent on mainstream free schools that failed.
DfE spent £115m on doomed free schools, UTCs and studio schools
