Our children deserve better than this ...

concerns that the Government was allocating more money to build free schools at a time when existing schools are falling into disrepair.

The Government itself estimates that £7billion is needed to bring the existing school estate up to a satisfactory standard, and a further £7billion to bring them up to good condition.

This week’s PAC report echoes my concerns and condemns the Government’s free schools policy as incoherent and poor value for money.

It said the Government is spending well over the odds in its bid to create 500 more free schools, many of which are also in inadequate premises and without onsite playgrounds or sports facilities. In short, it’s clear that the Government is failing our children.

Some 420,000 new school places are needed by 2021 to cater for the growing school-age population, but ministers have completely failed to provide places where they are needed.

Instead, they’ve wasted billions of pounds in the rush to build new free schools where there is no need. Developers can see them coming, so prices for new school sites are going up as a result.

Schools are already under significant financial pressure due to Government demands for £3billion of savings by 2020. Figures compiled by the National Union of Teachers show that every primary and secondary school in my area will lose money, and every school will lose teachers.

I’ve warned time and again that these demands risk plunging schools into an NHS-style funding crisis – schools are already so