School capital funding
Source: gov.uk (2025-10-21)

An overview of school capital funding, who it’s for, current and past allocations, how it’s calculated and spending guidance.

Overview

The Department for Education (DfE) allocates funding each year to help maintain and improve the condition of school buildings and grounds.

For the 2025 to 2026 financial year, eligible schools could access funding through either:
- school condition allocations (SCA), with funds paid to eligible bodies responsible for maintaining school buildings
- the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) – a bidding round with funds paid directly to single academy trusts, small multi-academy trusts (MATs), small voluntary aided (VA) bodies and sixth-form colleges
In addition, devolved formula capital (DFC) was allocated for individual schools and other eligible institutions to spend on capital projects.

Who the funding is for

School condition funding includes capital allocations for:
- local authorities and local-authority-maintained schools, including maintained nursery schools
- local voluntary-aided bodies and voluntary-aided schools
- academies and large multi-academy trusts (MATs)
- sixth-form colleges
- non-maintained special schools
- special post-16 institutions with eligible students
Eligibility for SCA for the 2026 to 2027 financial year

Schools are either part of bodies eligible for SCA or are eligible for CIF depending on their size and type.

Local authorities, larger MATs and larger VA school bodies receive direct SCA to invest in priorities across the schools for which they are responsible. Schools in smaller academy trusts, smaller VA bodies and sixth-form colleges are instead able to bid into the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/condition-improvement-fund).

CIF eligible schools have been invited to bid into the fund for 2026 to 2027. If a school has been invited to bid for CIF in the 2026 to 2027 financial year, their responsible body will not receive any SCA funding on their behalf. Schools invited to CIF should therefore submit bids if they have condition investment requirements.

Schools that had an academy order at the start of September 2025 that we expected to convert into a CIF eligible trust by 1 April 2026 have also been invited to apply to CIF for the 2026 to 2027 financial year.

To be eligible for SCA, multi-academy trusts and VA bodies must have met both eligibility criteria:
- the trust or VA body must have had 5 or more open schools at the start of September 2025
- those open schools (or their predecessor schools) must have had at least 3,000 pupils counted in the spring 2025 census or the 2024 to 2025 individualised learner record (ILR)
For special and alternative-provision schools (including pupil referral units), we multiply the pupil count by 4.5 for the purposes of SCA eligibility for the 2026 to 2027 financial year. For example, we would count a MAT with 1,000 pupils in special schools as having 4,500 pupils. This reflects the fact that these schools tend to have lower pupil numbers for their size and more complex facilities.

For eligibility, we count all pupils that are sole, dual-main, or dual-subsidiary enrolled. If pupils are registered at more than one institution, we divide the count by the number of institutions that the pupil is registered at. For example, pupils dual registered at a mainstream school and a pupil referral unit (PRU) would have their count divided by 2 at both institutions.

For nursery schools and sixth forms, we use the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) pupils, rather than headcount.

We notify academy trusts and VA school bodies that are eligible for SCA each autumn. Eligibility should not be assumed unless it has been confirmed.

Funding allocations for the 2025 to 2026 financial year

Capital funding is based on financial years. For the final school condition allocation and devolved formula capital (DFC) funding amounts for the 2025 to 2026 financial year, see:
- school capital funding allocations for 2025 to 2026 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/682afa7a96a230471ac7e767/School_capital_funding_allocations_for_2025_to_2026.xlsx) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 2.21 MB)
- school capital funding allocations for 2025 to 2026 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/682afa9a010c5c28d1c7e77f/School_capital_funding_allocations_for_2025_to_2026.ods) (ODS, 2.35 MB)
How the funding is calculated and what it can be spent on

The condition funding methodology and spend guidance sets out information on eligibility and how the funding is calculated. It also provides guidance on the purpose of the funding, what it can be spent on and over what time period. The methodology was updated for financial year 2025 to 2026.

See condition funding methodology and spend guidance 2025 to 2026 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e53ca755be617e1490d609/Condition_grant_methodology_and_spend_guidance_2025-26.pdf) (PDF, 366 KB, 27 pages) for information on eligibility and how the funding was calculated for 2025 to 2026.

Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC)

DfE is providing support for schools and colleges with confirmed RAAC. This includes funding refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to permanently remove RAAC. This targeted support is in addition to any SCA or funding through CIF for the 2025 to 2026 financial year. See Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in education settings (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-in-education-settings) for further information on RAAC.

Previous years’ funding

See the National Archives website (https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/timeline1/https:/www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations) for SCA and DFC allocations for previous years.

The Healthy Pupils capital fund was a one-year fund for the 2018 to 2019 financial year only.

In the 2018 budget, the government announced an extra £400 million of capital funding for schools in England for the 2018 to 2019 financial year. See the additional capital funding page on the National Archives (https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20190304090343/https:/www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations/capital-funding-for-2018-to-2019) for more information.

In 2020, an additional £560 million for repairs and upgrades to school buildings was provided, on top of funding already allocated for the 2020 to 2021 financial year.

In the 2022 to 2023 financial year, £500 million of additional capital funding was awarded to schools and colleges to improve buildings and facilities, prioritising energy efficiency.

Estate management

We expect bodies responsible for schools to manage their school estate strategically and maintain their estate in a safe working condition. For academies, this has also been set out in the Academy trust handbook 2025 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-trust-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2025-effective-from-1-september-2025).

The department’s new School estate management standards (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-estate-management-standards) are designed to help all schools and responsible bodies to manage their estate effectively, and to navigate, prioritise and build on good practice requirements and expectations. The updated competency framework and relevant training guidance documents (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estate-management-competency-framework-and-relevant-training) include information on knowledge, skills, training and qualifications relevant to different estate management roles and responsibilities.

Good estate management for schools (GEMS) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/good-estate-management-for-schools) includes guidance on estate management, including developing an estates strategy and asset management plan, and a self-assessment tool to identify estate management priorities.

Managing asbestos guidance (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/asbestos-management-in-schools) sets out further advice on effective management of asbestos in school and college buildings.

Responsible bodies must ensure they secure value for money through appropriate procurement routes. For large projects, the school buildings construction framework (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-buildings-construction-framework/construction-framework-handbook) is available for use and should be considered as part of project development planning.

The Trust Network

The Trust Network (TTN) is a group of academy trusts committed to good estate management, and support schools to build their capability and practice. They share best practice, exchange knowledge and, where needed, form a single voice to discuss issues or concerns with DfE and other national agencies and help improve the resources available to support schools. You can join the network for free and find out more about their events through The Trust Network website (https://www.thetrustnetwork.org.uk/).

The Trust Network is led by volunteers from a diverse range of MATs and SATs from across England and membership is open to all independently run, state-funded schools. Hundreds of academy trusts are currently registered as members.

Grants to local authorities

The condition funding grant determination (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e2d9406e54ea5b2b8ee268/Capital_Grant_Determination_Letter_2025.pdf) (PDF, 233 KB, 3 pages) sets out the conditions of grant for payments to local authorities in the 2025 to 2026 financial year. The Secretary of State for Education makes grant determinations under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/26).