Half of councils will not have enough school places by 2022

‘Families face uncertainty’

ALMOST half of the councils in England will not have enough secondary school places in five years’ time following a baby boom fuelled by migration.

Council leaders warn that more than 125,000 children face missing out on a secondary school place by the 2022/23 academic year unless urgent action is taken.

Manchester, Leicester and Islington in North London are the worst hit by the crisis, as official figures show they may already have more pupils than places for this coming autumn term.

However, the problem is due to spread beyond metropolitan areas, with many regional towns and counties expected to be affected over the next few years.

The projections have been compiled by the Local Government Association (LGA), using Department for Education data. The government has previously acknowledged that a bulge in the pupil population has partly been caused by a higher birth rate among mothers from other countries.

This has previously led to a strain on primary school places, and now the problem is begin- ning to transfer to secondaries as the children get older.

The LGA projection suggests that in 2018/19, a total of 12 councils are due to run out of places, with the total rising to 23 the following year. By 2022/23, 66 councils face a shortfall – which represents 49 per cent of the 135 councils in the study.

Officials have already been forced to create almost 600,000 additional primary places since 2010 and must now take similar action in secondaries. It may involve housing children in temporary buildings.

Children living in areas where the authorities cannot meet demand may have to commute long distances to other areas.

Richard Watts, chairman of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: ‘As the LGA has previously warned, the school places squeeze is now about to hit secondary schools. Without action, more and more families will face growing uncertainty when trying to secure their child’s secondary school.

‘Councils have worked hard to help create almost 600,000 additional primary places since 2010.

‘However, as those children move on to secondary schools, the majority of which are now academies, securing new secondary places in the areas where they are needed is becoming increasingly difficult.’

The LGA said councils urgently need to be given powers to force academies and free schools to expand if additional places are needed and voluntary agreements cannot be reached. It added councils also need to be given back powers to build new schools, which currently rest in the hands of Whitehall.

The projection makes the likelihood of more disappointment for parents seeking good schools for their children. Yesterday, it was revealed that 60,886 appeals were lodged by parents denied places at a favoured school.

Last month, a government report revealed that in secondary schools alone, the overall population is projected to reach around 3.3million in 2026, an increase of around 534,000 more pupils – or 19.1 per cent.

A Department for Education spokesman said the LGA projections were misleading, adding: ‘Local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure there is a school place for every child. We have allocated £5.8billion of basic need funding between 2015 and 2020 to enable them to do this.

‘This money is given to councils based on their own estimates of the places they will need.’

WAS there ever a more embarrassingly gushing public embrace? In Brussels yesterday, increasingly ludicrous European Commission president Jean- Claude Juncker and our own ‘Remainiac-in-Chief’ – former prime minister Tony Blair – staged a truly nauseating love-in.

The toe- curling spectacle was carefully timed to upstage the formal Brexit talks going on in the same building and to suggest that – with Mr Blair’s help of course – the democratic will of the British people may yet be thwarted.

Along with chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier, these men epitomise everything that’s wrong with the Brussels club and remind us why we are so right to be getting out. They personify a self-serving political elite which despises democracy.

In their minds, the British people must be punished for voting Leave – not least to discourage other countries from taking the same step – so the very last thing they want is a smooth and successful Brexit.

And so far, they seem to be getting their way. After ten weeks and three rounds of talks, the real Brexit negotiations remained firmly stuck in the deep freeze yesterday.

On every single British proposal, Mr Barnier has been sullen and intransigent – almost to the point of hostility.

With typical Gallic hauteur, he declared there had been ‘no decisive progress’ and that there was a worrying ‘lack of trust’ between the two sides – especially over the divorce bill and the rights of EU citizens.

When he came to the British proposals for a new tariff-free trade deal, he was at his most contemptuous. Allowing the UK to trade freely with the single market without being bound by the European Court was, he said, simply ‘impossible’.

So there we have it. As another Frenchman – General de Gaulle – famously put it: ‘Non, non, non!’ For Mr Barnier, the term ‘negotiator’ constitutes a clear breach of trades descriptions. He shows not the slightest inclination to negotiate.

But for all their bluster, Barnier and Juncker are hollow men. The only power they have is vested in them by the other 27 member nations and those nations sell over £300billion in goods and services to the UK every year. The prospect of postBrexit chaos hurts them more than it hurts us. They will not put up with Mr Barnier’s obstinacy indefinitely.

Unemployment in the eurozone stands at an alarming 9.1 per cent – more than twice the British rate. They need our business.

So the Prime Minister is wise to go direct to the leaders of France and Germany – both of whom are under intense pressure from their own business communities to find a resolution to the Brexit impasse.

The Barniers and Junckers of this world are no more than posturing commissars. The real power in Europe lies with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron. It is they who will have the last word.