Government鈥檚 Education White Paper acknowledges difficulty over securing premises for flagship programme

The government will make its own buildings available for conversion into free schools, according to a White Paper on Education published today.

The Department for Education acknowledged that 鈥渙ne of the biggest barriers鈥� to setting up new schools was 鈥渟ecuring land and premises.鈥� The White Paper said: 鈥淲e will lead the way by supporting new Free Schools to open in buildings that the Department owns or leases.鈥�

The department says it has 25 free schools currently in the formal business case and planning stage, and expects 鈥渟ome鈥� of these to open in 2011.

Elsewhere in the White Paper, the government restated its intention to cut down the bureaucracy and cost of school building projects, saying it would follow the recommendations of the Sebastian James review into Capital spending once it reports in December.

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