The DfE spent more than £1.3 million on free-school projects that were cancelled in 2018, before they had even opened.
New data from the department, released today, shows that last year 13 free schools were “withdrawn during the pre-opening stage”.
Of these, 11 had received project development grants. Two of these grants totalled more than £250,000.
The biggest grant was for the planned Gipsy Hill School in Lambeth, south London, on which £279,073 was spent.
Plans for the school were approved by the DfE in September 2015, and it was given a provisional opening date of September 2017.
The secondary school was due to be run by the Gipsy Hill Federation, which has previously attracted controversy of the near-£400,000 remuneration package of its former executive headteacher Sir Craig Tunstall.
The second biggest grant was for The Campus, in Haringey, London, which had a £257,700 grant.
The DfE document also shows that £90,000 was spent on a free school that was due to be opened by the controversial Perry Beeches trust in Birmingham.
The DfE document says: “The department provides a project development grant to help trusts cover costs in the run up to opening a free school (the pre-opening stage).
“The funding is provided to cover all revenue expenditure relating to the project up to the point at which the school opens.”
The full list of project development grants given to free schools that were cancelled in 2018 is as follows:
- Canary Wharf College 4: Greenwich, Greenwich, £0
- Spencers Wood Primary School, Wokingham, £0
- City Enterprise Academy, Stoke on Trent, £30,000
- Gipsy Hill School, Lambeth, £279,073
- Roundhay Park Primary School, Leeds, £220,000
- Collegiate Free Primary School, Sutton, £30,000
- The Campus, Haringey, £257,700
- Mariposa Primary School, Harrow, £228,300
- Perry Beeches - The Free School - The Primary School I, Birmingham, £90,000
- REAch2 Chilton Woods (Sudbury) E5, Suffolk, £8,223
- University of Brighton Secondary School, Brighton & Hove, £210,000
- North West Leeds Sixth Form Centre, Leeds, £4,517
- Houghton Gate School, Northamptonshire, £4,573
