Academies overspend by average of £3.2m

22 Feb 07
Seventeen of the first 26 academy schools commissioned under the government's controversial programme overspent their agreed capital budgets, the public spending watchdog has revealed.

23 February 2007

Seventeen of the first 26 academy schools commissioned under the government's controversial programme overspent their agreed capital budgets, the public spending watchdog has revealed.

An analysis by the National Audit Office, published on February 23, has found that the average cost overrun was £3.2m per academy. The average cost per academy was £24m.

NAO auditors found that the capital costs of academies varied by as much as 50% in different parts of the country.

Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said: 'For the programme, the challenge is to manage capital costs better for the hundreds of new academies still planned to be built and to use the lessons from the programme… to get good value for money for the large capital investment currently being made.'

Despite the cost overruns, the report concluded that the academies' programme was on track to deliver good value for money.

'Taking account of pupils' personal circumstances and prior attainment, academies are performing substantially better than other schools,' the report said.

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