The “distortion” of the free-schools programme to provide new places where they were not needed led to public money being wasted, Nick Clegg has claimed.

The former Liberal Democrat leader, who was deputy prime minister when free schools were introduced, welcomed reports that the government is considering scaling back the programme to save money.

He told Tes that while it was originally conceived as a limited programme to create new school places where they were needed, the Conservatives had “distorted” it through a rush to create new free schools.

He said the Conservatives had taken an “arbitrary and financially reckless approach to free schools”, and added: “The moment you opened the floodgates to that arbitrary approach, I think it was inevitable money would be wasted.”

The DfE estimates that 83 per cent of free schools approved since September 2013 have been in areas where school places were needed.

But in February, the National Audit Office said that 57,500 out of 113,500 new places in mainstream free schools opening between 2015 and 2021 will create “spare capacity” in the schools’ immediate area, which could affect funding in neighbouring schools. 

Mr Clegg said: “We as Liberal Democrats accepted the idea there was a role for schools initiated by communities in areas where there was real pressure on school places. What we did not accept, and what we most of the time, but not all of the time, blocked, was the misuse of public money where there was no real need for them.”

The Conservative’s election manifesto promised to create at least 100 new free schools a year.

However, yesterday the Times reported that education secretary Justine Greening was looking at reducing, or dropping, the free-schools programme, as she sought savings to ensure no school saw its budget cut under the national funding formula.

The newspaper quoted a source close to her as saying that, while new school places were needed, “the question is how we get maximum value for every place we can create”.

Asked whether he would support a scaling back of the free-schools programme, Mr Clegg said “yes”.

He added: “I think [the Conservatives] have been hoist on their own petard because they have taken a very precise idea, which was to allow schools to be established primarily in areas where there was pressure on school places, and instead used it in a more random way to shake up school systems, even where there was no pressure on school places.”