Ministers consult on regulations for transfer of local authority land to academies

The Department for Education has launched a consultation on regulations designed to ensure that local authority land is transferred more quickly when a maintained school becomes an academy.

The move to potentially impose transfer schemes comes amid claims that some local authorities are “not as engaged with the [academy] programme” as other councils are.

In a letter to local authority chief executives, junior government minister Lord Hill acknowledged that many local authorities had been working hard to engage with the programme and had been doing all they could to support schools wishing to convert.

He said: “It is very much our intention that the negotiated solutions for leasehold transfer will continue to be the route most schools will follow.

“But with the speed at which local authorities are now being expected by schools to respond to their desire for conversion to academy status, some local authorities have not always been able to meet schools’ expectations with a lease or transfer of the freehold”.

Lord Hill added that the DfE knew that some authorities, “for various reasons”, might not necessarily be clear how land should be treated as part of the conversion process, or might not be as engaged with the programme.

“Consequently, we must ensure that where this is the case and problems do arise, there are mechanisms in place to facilitate conversions,” he wrote.

The regulations would take forward the use by the Secretary of State of his power under the Learning and Skills Act 2000 to make schemes transferring local authority land that has been used for the purposes of a community school within the previous eight years (and no longer needed for those purpose) to those involved with the running of CTCs and academies.

The regulations specify the information and documents that a local authority must supply to the Secretary of State if he decides to make a scheme to transfer local authority land to an academy or free school.

Lord Hill said setting out in regulations exactly what information the authority must provide to the SoS in order for him to make a scheme would “significantly reduce the risk of important issues relating to the land being overlooked, and of schemes which are made being open to challenge by either side".

The minister insisted that such schemes would be required “only rarely” and that negotiated solutions would be reached in the vast majority of cases. He also said the government was not seeking to undermine the process of local authorities disposing of their surplus land.

“We will listen to all representations on a case by case basis before deciding the details of any transfer, should it be necessary to make a scheme,” he wrote. “In making any decisions to impose a transfer scheme, the Secretary of State would always seek to find the most appropriate balance between securing sites for new and existing academies and free schools and ensuring value for money.”

The minister stressed that the powers applied only where land is no longer required for the maintained school, and there was no intention to remove land from any existing school where the land continues to be used by the school.

Lord Hill’s letter includes the draft regulations, model schemes for both freehold and leasehold land, and a Q&A with further details on the measures.

In the case of community schools, the security of tenure for academies has for the most part been secured through a 125-year lease from the local authority.

The consultation runs until 18 January 2012. More information is available here.

Philip Hoult