England and Wales warned of pupil place shortfall by 2023
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, has warned of a secondary place shortfall “emergency” in the next five years.
LGA analysis reveals that nearly 134,000 children will miss out on a secondary school place by 2023/24 as a result of the surge in primary school pupils, unless new places are created.
The LGA analysis reveals that unless more secondary school places are created, 13 local authorities will face a secondary school place shortfall in 2019/20.
This will rise to 25 in 2020/21, 46 in 2021/22 and 54 in 2022/23.
By 2023/24, a total of 71 councils (52 per cent) face not being able to meet demand for 133,926 places.
To address this, the LGA is calling for government to give councils the power to open new maintained schools where that is the local preference; and hand back the responsibility for making decisions about opening new schools.
It should also give councils the same powers to direct free schools and academies to expand that they currently hold for maintained schools.
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