Extra funding will be split between building free schools and addressing school place shortages

The government has announced £1.2bn of extra funding for schools capital projects in its autumn statement.

George Osborne announced that the Treasury would make available £600m to fund the launch of around 100 additional free schools, many of which will specialise in teaching maths.

The other £600m will be used to address the urgent shortfall of school places in England, particularly at primary school level.

This £600m, which is in addition to the annual settlements planned by the Department for Education for the current spending review period, will be spent between 2013-14 and 2014-15. It comes on top of £500m of basic need funding allocated to local authorities earlier this month.

The £600m of free schools funding is earmarked to be split into a £300m spend in 2013/14 and £300m in 2014/15.

Further reading:
www.hm-treasury.gov.uk