The Government has published plans for billions of pounds worth of capital investment in the education estate, with the unveiling this week of its much-anticipated Infrastructure Pipeline.

The document provides a 10-year forward look of investment into major UK capital infrastructure, including nurseries, schools, colleges, and universities; and supports the strategic framework of the Government’s UK Infrastructure: a 10 Year Strategy and its Plan for Change.

It sets out at least £725bn of public funding for infrastructure over 10 years and highlights the critical role played by private investment alongside this.

Through a series of regular updates, the pipeline will become a comprehensive database of information for construction firms and investors looking to understand future demand.

And it will enable supply chain investment in capacity and capability and encourage private investment. In so doing, it will improve the delivery of the country’s infrastructure projects and support economic growth.

The pipeline will also help the Government by providing a clear and consistent picture of all significant infrastructure investments to inform decisions and increase coherence in spending, policy, and delivery, with future iterations initially focused on investability and supporting better understanding of necessary jobs and skills to support the best-possible investment outcomes.

This visual is based on 649 programmes/projects that have reported regional data, 428 of which have reported total expenditure on new capital infrastructure, maintenance and renewals

For the education sector, the report reveals a pipeline of projects across all regions, including:

• Basic Needs Provision Capital Funding: This supports local authorities to meet their statutory duty to secure sufficient mainstream school places. Local authoritiy funding allocations are based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data and they can use them to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools. They can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools
• High Needs Provision Capital Funding: This supports local authorities to meet their duty to provide sufficient school places for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision
• Better Youth Spaces Funding: This is a capital fund for young people and youth organisations that will bring fast-paced benefits to youth organisations and the young people they work with in the mission to create safer streets and provide more opportunities for the young people. The fund will be looking to invest just over £400m over a four-year period with £26m allocated for 2025-2026
• Post-16 Capacity Fund: This will fund the creation of additional places in localities with acute shortages of 16-18 places as a result of the demographic bulge recently experienced at KS3 and KS4 reaching post-16 education. Where value for money, awards may be used for permanent builds
• School and College Maintenance Fund: Annual capital to improve the condition of the school/college estate. The majority of funding is provided as formulaic allocations to bodies responsible for the school/college estate such as local authorities, large multi-academy trusts, and large voluntary aided school bodies. They decide locally how to invest in improving the condition of their schools/college
• School Rebuilding Programme: The programme carries out major rebuilding and refurbishment projects at school and sixth-form college buildings across England, with buildings prioritised according to their condition need
• School-Based Nurseries Capital Fund: This was a bid-based funding round, where schools could bid for up to a maximum of £150,000 capital funding to convert surplus space in the school estate into nursery provision. Schools could either expand existing nurseries or set up new nurseries and could deliver the provision in partnership with private, voluntary, and independent providers, provided the nursery was within the school estate
• SR25 Settlement: Capital funding to support post-16 capacity to accommodate increasing student numbers
• Technical Excellence College Funding: This will fund the transformation of existing further education colleges to deliver against the Industrial Strategy growth-driving sectors with specialisms rooted in place and aligning with nationally identified priorities
• Youth Investment Fund: The fund’s objective is to create, expand, and improve up to 300 local youth facilities and their services, in order to drive positive outcomes for young people, including improved mental and physical wellbeing and skills for life and work

For the next financial year/s, the predicted capital spend pipeline for each region is:

Basic Needs Capital Funding Allocations

• East Midlands 2025-2026 £61m   2026/27 £100m
• East of England 2025-2026 £33m 2026/27 £100m
• London 2025-2026 £33m 2026/27 £39m
• North East 2025-2026 £2m 2026/27 £9m
• North West 2025-2026 £110m 2026/27 £69m
• South East 2025-2026 £100m 2026/27 £120m
• South West 2025-2026 £63m 2026/27 £27m
• West Midlands 2025-2026 £64m 2026/27 £140m
• Yorkshire & The Humber 2025-2026 £44m 2026/27 £30m

High Needs Capital Funding Allocations

• East Midlands 2025-2026 £69m   
• East of England 2025-2026 £76m
• London 2025-2026 £120m
• North East 2025-2026 £25m
• North West 2025-2026 £97m
• South East 2025-2026 £120m
• South West 2025-2026 £71m
• West Midlands 2025-2026 £75m
• Yorkshire & The Humber 2025-2026 £64m

In addition, Leeds and Manchester will both benefit from £10m each under the Post 16 Capacity Fund.

And the pipeline includes £2.4bn each year for the next two years for school and college maintenance; as well as £36m in the next financial year for school-based nurseries.

Construction expenditure profile

A government spokesman said: “Built using data from 40 organisations including government and public bodies, and regulated businesses, the pipeline provides information on public and privately-delivered infrastructure projects in construction, under development, or in pre-project stages where a clear strategic need has been prioritised by the UK Government.

“The pipeline provides details of capital construction and maintenance costs for projects and programmes anticipated to exceed £25m for economic infrastructure, such as transport, utilities and energy, and £15m for other infrastructure, including education.

“The Pipeline is a dynamic online tool, developed with input from industry stakeholders which consists of an interactive dashboard, a fully-downloadable spreadsheet providing information about each scheme with details of anticipated spend, current status, and expected completion, together with information on the pipeline’s methodology and how it will be developed in future.

“The pipeline is not an announcement of new government policy or project investments, but an update on the latest position on each project and programme in the portfolio.

“For government investments, it will provide information on projects and programmes previously announced through a Spending Review or at a departmental level.”

The pipeline will be regularly updated initially on a six-monthly schedule.