Claim: Free schools are being opened in areas that do not need them.
Fact-check: Most, but not all, free schools help meet demand for school places - Full Fact
Verdict: it depends what you mean by 'need'. 83% of free schools since 2013 have been opened in areas that need extra school places, but free schools can also be opened with the intention of driving up standards. across this parliament, the department for education expects about half of new places in mainstream free schools to create spare capacity in their local area.
Organisation: Full Fact
Author: Richard Braham
Date published: 2017-02-24T00:00:00