Conservative governments spent £325m creating 67 free schools that subsequently failed or disappeared, many through lack of demand, according to data revealed by a freedom of information request.

The figures from the Department for Education (DfE) show that the government committed more than £10bn to building new schools between 2014-15 and 2023-24, compared with £6.8bn for rebuilding existing schools, which critics say left England with a backlog of crumbling and decaying buildings.

The free schools programme was launched by Michael Gove as education secretary in 2010, under a novel formula allowing for groups or organisations to bid for funding for new schools approved centrally by the DfE. Ministers pause plans to open 44 new state schools in England Read more

While a number

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