Free schools will be built in “mixed-use developments”, such as retail parks and leisure developments, allowing private property developers to share any financial “rewards”, under plans that the government wanted to keep secret.
The details are revealed in the Department for Education’s business case for its property company, LocatED. But the same document acknowledges serious potential problems in building new schools within such projects.
“For mixed-use developments, there is a perceived or real conflict of interest due to the level of working with the private sector who will have other priorities, cost and time pressures,” it says.
“A mixed-use development site refers to sites which have a range of uses eg, a retail park or leisure centre, therefore the school would be part of a wider set of operations but must be the driving reason behind the acquisition.”
The business case reveals that one of the five “investment objectives” is to “share risks and rewards with private sector developers to offset the costs of new school provision”.
The DfE tried to suppress these details, but failed to redact them properly.
Valentine Mulholland, head of policy for the NAHT headteachers’ union, says: “The idea of siting new schools on retail parks and other commercial sites is of huge concern because it means that many families will have to travel longer distances to school and face higher costs, isolating the schools themselves in out-of-town locations.
“The commercial interests of developers will almost certainly not be a perfect fit for the needs of the school and its children.”
There are also “safety and child protection” risks attached to placing schools close to busy shopping developments, according to public accounts committee chair Meg Hillier.
“It is odd to mix schools and shopping centres,” the MP says. “[The DfE] may be trying to be too clever.”
Previous attempts to site schools in mixed-use developments suggest that the DfE will have to give serious consideration to the types of business situated on the same development as a school. Earlier this year, plans to place a free school in Morpeth, Northumberland, opposite a drive-through fast-food restaurant as part of a new development, had to be withdrawn following a local campaign.
LocatED’s website features some mixed-use sites that include housing, but none that mention retail parks or leisure centres.
One of the mixed sites it highlights is the controversial Ladbroke House development in Hackney, which was bought by the government for £33.5 million. It is set to include accommodation for key workers, as well as a post-16 free school run by Working Title, the film and television production company behind Love Actually and Billy Elliot.
The original plans, which involved a different school sponsor - the Meller Educational Trust - were scaled back after campaigners attacked the project for including luxury flats, and for potentially threatening the future of two nearby comprehensives, owing to the proposed school taking pupils from the age of 11.
A DfE spokesperson says: “In securing sites for free schools, the need for a school comes first. Sites must meet the requirements of the school including providing a safe environment that meets child protection requirements.
“All site acquisitions are subject to a rigorous approvals process in line with the Government’s Managing Public Money guidance on spending public funds.”
