The DfE has admitted it does not know how many academy trusts are operating under funding agreements that completely relinquish public control of state school land.
The problem has been highlighted by the case of Durand Academy, where public assets then valued at £15 million were transferred to a separate organisation, Durand Education Trust, when the South London school became an academy in 2010.
Last November, the Commons Public Accounts Committee heard that while the school buildings had been returned to Lambeth Council after the Department for Education (DfE) terminated the academy’s funding agreement, Durand Education Trust maintained that it still owned land on the school site and accommodation and a leisure centre that had been built there.
https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-dfe-does-not-know-how-much-academy-land-it-has-lost-control