Investment to shield schools from high energy bills and boost to budgets

Recently, the Government announced that schools and colleges will receive £500 million to improve energy efficiency, helping them to reduce their energy consumption and save on bills.

This will not only help them save money, but it will make them more energy efficient during the cold period and increase winter resilience for future years.

Estimations show that on average, a primary school will receive approximately £16,000, a secondary school will get £42,000 and a further education college group will benefit from £290,000.  Improvements could include installing better heating controls, insulation to reduce heat loss from pipes or switching to energy efficient lighting.

This builds on the Government’s Energy Relief Scheme which is supporting schools and colleges this winter, and will run until the spring.

On top of this, as announced in the Autumn Statement, the Government is investing an extra £2 billion funding for schools next year and the year after. This is the highest real terms investment in our schools in history.

This £2 billion of new money will be allocated between mainstream schools and high needs funding. Local councils will get an extra £400 million for high needs budgets, to help support children with special educational needs or disabilities. Academies, maintained mainstream schools and special schools will all be guaranteed a funding boost, which will arrive from April next year.

This means average funding per pupil for mainstream schools will increase by approximately five percent overall, in the next financial year compared to 2022-23.

A typical primary school with 200 pupils will get approximately £28,000, and secondary schools with around 900 pupils will receive approximately £170,000. In total schools will be receiving £58.8 billion in 2024-25 – meaning in real terms we are putting more into schools than ever before.

I am pleased to see that every child’s education is at the very heart of the Government's agenda. As MP for Norwich North, ensuring that our children get the best possible start in life is one of my priorities. To find out what I am doing to ensure this, please visit: https://www.chloesmith.org.uk/myplan/children.

For further information on this announcement, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/investment-to-shield-schools-from-high-energy-bills-and-boost-to-budgets?deliveryName=DM16577

I hope you find this information helpful. The Government is committed to young people and families, and so am I for us in Norwich. If I can help constituents with any matter, please do email me on chloe@chloesmith.org.uk or ring my constituency office on 01603 414756.