Hounslow targets free schools to fill gap in schools budget

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/local-news/free-schools-could-help-council-6299705


Council leaders see free schools as a solution to the huge funding shortage for new school places. Hounslow must provide another 3,150 primary school places by 2015/16 but there is a funding shortfall of £45 million and even if it digs into its reserves, as planned, it will be £29m short of the necessary cash for that expansion. Council leaders are keen to attract free schools because they would get central government funding, reducing the burden on the council to pay for new places. Councillor Tom Bruce, cabinet member for education, claims in his report that the new statement of intent will ‘...set the context for a productive relationship through which the council would provide appropriate support to applicants, where they are contributing to new school places for local children’.