The Department of Education (DfE) is releasing £180m through its condition improvement fund to repair and improve school facilities. It also allows for a small number of expansion projects to increase school capacity.
Projects range from the upgrading of boilers to refurbishment of a classroom blocks. They have been selected based on bids submitted to the fund for the main funding round earlier this year.
The works can begin as soon as schools are ready, and the majority should be completed this financial year.
A further £380m is being provided to local authorities, larger multi-academy trusts and large voluntary aided school bodies to spend on improving the condition of their schools.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “As we work towards all children returning to school in September, this investment in our school and college buildings helps create modern environments that lend themselves to great teaching, making sure every child has the opportunity to fulfil their potential.
“We have worked at great speed to release this additional £560m of condition funding to schools for projects this year to kick-start the economy and transform the buildings so vital for excellent teaching.
“We have now allocated over £2bn this year to improve the condition of our school buildings, paving the way for our new transformative 10-year school building programme starting later this year with over £1bn funding for the first wave of 50 schools.”
The 50 new-build projects will be confirmed in the autumn and construction on the first sites will begin from September 2021, the DfE said.
The government is also bringing forward £200m for further education (FE) colleges this year, as part of a £1.5bn five-year investment plan to improve the FE college estate.
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