The £230m primary schools sell-off

Almost 300 primary school sites have been sold off in the past decade as local councils seek to raise funds, according to a More4 News/Channel 4 News online survey.

The sales have generated £230m for authorities, as councils struggle to meet government funding demands and combat falling school rolls.

The research shows a further 188 primary schools sites are earmarked for future sale.

Critics say the sell-offs are a 'missed opportunity' to improve educational standards, and could leave authorities short of classrooms in the future.

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT, said: "The findings both surprise and depress me. At the moment we still have extremely large class sizes all over England and Wales, and because of these sell-offs we will find ourselves with insufficient classroom capacity further down the road.

"Whilst the pupil population might be decreasing at the moment this was the ideal opportunity to reduce class sizes and keep spending on education at the same level so that we can begin to fulfil Gordon Brown's promise that state school children will be funded to the same level as those in the independent sector."

Government funds schools according to how many places they have, rather than the actual number of pupils. It urges authorities to close schools with too few children, as they are seen as an ineffective use of resources.

The survey found that the council which received the most for primary school sales in the past decade was Oxfordshire, whose sell-off programme led to £39.8m being brought in from sales.

Others in the top 10 included: Hertfordshire at £25.6m, Cambridgeshire at £19.7, West Sussex at £15.8m, Havering at £15.4m and Leeds at £13.7m.

Over Easter, Cumbria County Council became the latest authority to indicate it was going to close primary schools under a reorganisation programme.

Councils pledge to put the money raised from primary school sales back into education funding, and many new schools and facilities have been built using the revenue.

However, professor Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, warned that pledges on education spending have to be taken with a pinch of salt.

He said: "You have to take councils at face value when they say they will be ring-fencing funds. But ring-fencing doesn't necessarily mean extra spending on education."

Overall, 113 councils responded to questions filed by Channel 4 news online under Freedom of Information rules, to show that 298 primary school sites had been sold off in the past decade for a total of £236,337,577.