I am delighted to hear that Abbey Primary School has been awarded funding through the recent round of the Government's Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) for a roof renewal project.
This is further to the funding that was announced through CIF earlier in the year for Wallington High School for Girls, Carew Academy and the Link Secondary School for school building upgrade projects.
The core priority of CIF is keeping buildings safe and in good working order at eligible academies, sixth form colleges and voluntary aided (VA) schools, which are not part of larger VA school groups. Most CIF funding aims to address issues with significant consequences that other funding cannot meet. These include issues with poor building condition, building compliance, energy efficiency and health and safety.
Local authorities, large multi-academy trusts and large voluntary aided school bodies, such as dioceses, instead receive a School Condition Allocation to invest in condition priorities across their schools.
The fund also supports a small proportion of expansion projects for CIF eligible schools rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding to expand their existing facilities and/or floor space to either increase the number of admissions in the main year of entry or address overcrowding.
As in previous rounds, the fund was heavily oversubscribed so only those projects that demonstrated a high project need and aligned with CIF priorities have been able to be funded. More information on CIF, including the full list of successful projects published yesterday can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/condition-improvement-fund
In addition, I am delighted that the Government has committed to a new ten-year rebuilding programme, starting with 50 schools in the most need of repair. The programme will replace poor condition and ageing school buildings, with modern, energy efficient designs, transforming education for thousands of pupils. Further details will be set out in due course.
Alongside the start of this new rebuilding programme, we have allocated over half a billion pounds of additional capital funding to the school system this year to help support essential maintenance projects. This comes on top of over £1.4 billion in school condition funding already committed in 2020-21, including CIF.
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