More than 200,000 pupils live in an area with no Ofsted-rated “good” or “outstanding” primary schools, according to a new report.

The study to be published tomorrow, Lost Learning, from the think tank Onward and the New Schools Network, which supports new free schools, will call on the government to “level up” opportunity in areas that it terms “education deserts” by improving school quality.

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The report says that one in 25 primary pupils lives in an area with only underperforming primary schools - equivalent to 218,000 children. In total, 306 areas across England have primary schools that are only rated “inadequate” or “requires improvement” by Ofsted, which limits choice for parents in these areas, the report adds.

Levelling up: Tackling the ‘education deserts’

It also says that the proportion of the local areas it classes as “education deserts” is twice as high in the South West (6.4 per cent of local areas) and Yorkshire and the Humber (5.7 per cent) compared with London (2.9 per cent).

Wellingborough, Arun, Ipswich, Cambridge and Scarborough are among the local authorities with the most “deserts”. 

The report shows that in London and the South East respectively, 86 per cent and 77 per cent of local areas contain only “good” or “outstanding” schools compared with 59 per cent in the East Midlands and 61 per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber. One local authority, South Derbyshire, has only underperforming secondary schools.

Jonathan Gullis, Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, in a foreword to the report, writes: “Levelling up has come to mean a wealth of different things, but ultimately it comes down to improving opportunity.

“We all have talent but tragically opportunity is not distributed evenly. There is no part of society where this is more true, and more important, than in education.”