Plans to explore a new scheme to build teacher housing on school sites to help with recruitment have been quietly dropped by the government, Tes can reveal.
Department for Education (DfE) officials say this is owing to “lack of demand”, despite repeated warnings from senior political and education figures that a lack of affordable housing near schools is hitting teacher supply.
Meanwhile, Tes has learnt of at least one multi-academy trust actively looking for ways to build subsidised teacher housing in order to fund building repairs and tackle recruitment.
The DfE’s decision to drop its scheme has come to light as teacher supply reaches critical levels, and as school staff are being hit by rising costs and years of stagnant pay.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the move was “concerning” given the fact the “government has repeatedly missed their own recruitment targets for trainee secondary teachers”.
The DfE pledged to explore the issue of housing in its 2019 teacher recruitment strategy, which said: “We know that housing is an issue for teachers in areas of short supply.
“We will explore whether there is demand from teachers for new homes on surplus school land,” it added.
The department said, if there was enough demand, it would work with other departments to explore whether planning rule changes were needed.
However, it has now confirmed, in a Freedom of Information response, that it abandoned the idea following “initial discussions with schools and responsible bodies”.
“There was no data provided that evidenced demand specifically for teacher housing,” it added.
The DfE has, this year, asked its property company, LocatEd to “review” at least 316 school sites as part of a project to build housing on surplus land, according to board minutes.
But the project does not focus on teachers. A DfE official told Tes: “The Surplus Land for Housing pilot focuses on areas of England with high or very high housing need, with the potential to include affordable housing.
“It does not specifically consider teacher housing due to a lack of demand from the schools themselves.”
‘Teachers can’t afford homes’
This is despite previous warnings from figures such as Sir Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, that radical action from the government was needed to avoid teachers being completely priced out of high-cost areas.
Addressing teachers’ housing needs was also a key recommendation in a 2018 Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report, which cited data showing that, after workload, “factors affecting the cost of living (for example house prices)” were the second most significant barrier to teacher retention.
The current economic climate has brought the problem into focus even more sharply, PAC chair Meg Hillier told Tes this week.
“In my own constituency, teachers are leaving because they can’t afford homes,” she said.
“The cost-of-living crisis is biting hard and housing costs are rising unsustainably for too many households. The department can’t keep burying its head in the sand about the causes behind the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention.”
If cheaper housing was built near schools, “teachers would want to live there”, she added.
Tes understands that several multi-academy trusts would be interested in building teacher housing on their land, but sources point to hurdles such as local planning rules, the potential need for funding deals with other parts of the public sector, and restrictions over the sale of designated playing fields.
However, E-Act has shared details of a “blueprint” it is drawing up that it hopes other MATs will be able to replicate.
A DfE spokesperson said: “As part of our work looking into the viability of releasing surplus education land for housing, we did not find there was a demand for teacher accommodation.
“The department’s property company, LocatED, can support individual multi-academy trusts and responsible bodies wishing to explore opportunities for teacher accommodation further.”
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