School building grants in England: the capital funding routes for new facilities

By Grayling Thomas Architects · October 2026

There is no single grant for school building projects in England. The Department for Education (DfE) funds capital work through a handful of routes, and which one a school can use depends mainly on who is responsible for its buildings. The DfE's school capital funding guidance names the main ones: School Condition Allocation (SCA), paid to local authorities and larger trusts; the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), a bidding round for stand-alone academies, small trusts, small voluntary aided (VA) bodies and sixth-form colleges; and devolved formula capital (DFC) for individual schools. New places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are funded separately, through high needs provision capital paid to local authorities, and urgent capital support covers emergencies.

A new building or extension is often paid for from more than one of these, and the work that secures the money starts before any form is filled in: evidence of need, an independent survey, costed options and a deliverable programme. This article maps the main DfE capital routes for new facilities and how to prepare for them. For Salix, LCVAP, sports funding and other sources outside these routes, see our complete guide to school funding in the UK).

What capital funding routes are there for school buildings?

In the current CIF round, a school can bid if it is in a trust or VA group "with fewer than five schools or fewer than 3,000 pupils as counted in the Spring 2026 census or 2025/26 Individualised Learner Record (ILR)", and the DfE tells trusts and VA bodies "whether they are eligible for SCA each autumn", adding that "Eligibility should not be assumed unless it has been confirmed." Our article on CIF, SCA and urgent capital support, and which one applies to your school covers eligibility in detail.

School Condition Allocation and devolved formula capital

SCA is allocated, not bid for: local authorities, larger trusts and larger VA bodies "receive direct SCA to invest in priorities across the schools for which they are responsible". For a maintained school or a school in a large trust, the case for a new teaching block is made to the local authority or the trust's estates team, and it competes with every other building those bodies look after.

The guidance expects responsible bodies "to manage their school estate strategically and maintain their estate in a safe working condition". A school that arrives with a current condition survey, a clear brief and costed options is far easier to put at the top of the list than one that arrives with a request.

DFC is allocated "for individual schools and other eligible institutions to spend on capital projects". It has one notable limit in a CIF bid: VA schools "will continue to pay at least 10% of the costs of any successful CIF project and cannot use a CIF loan to cover this", and the DfE states that "DFC cannot be used for the 10% contribution to capital projects."

Using the Condition Improvement Fund for new facilities

CIF is the main route by which eligible schools bid for building money. Its core priority is condition: the DfE says "the focus of the fund is to keep school and college buildings safe and in good working order". The minimum project for primary and special schools is £20,000, the minimum for secondary schools, all-through schools and sixth-form colleges is £50,000, and the maximum is £4,000,000.

New space is harder to fund through CIF than repairs. The guidance is direct: "Only a very small proportion of CIF will be allocated to address expansion issues across high performing applicants", restricted to academies, sixth-form colleges and VA schools "with fewer than 2,000 pupils". For an eligible school, the more realistic CIF route to a new block is a condition with expansion project, which replaces an existing block in poor condition. The DfE will accept a replacement block where "the GIFA of the new block is up to 10% larger than the existing GIFA that is being replaced, if you provide clear evidence that there is no other alternative to meeting area standards as defined by Building Bulletin 103 or 104". "The aim of the project must primarily be to address significant condition need", and the school must design to Building Bulletin 103 or 104 "to determine what increase in GIFA, if any, is required". "If a condition with expansion project does not meet these criteria, it will be disqualified." A school may submit up to two projects, "but only one of these may be an expansion project."

The figures and quotations in this section come from the DfE's CIF 2027 to 2028 information for applicants. Our guide to securing CIF funding for school expansion and growth projects looks at how to choose between the condition, condition with expansion and expansion categories.

For this round, the deadline for new applicants to register for a CIF portal account was set at 12 noon, 30 November 2026, and the deadline to submit applications at 12 noon, 15 December 2026. Our article on this round's key dates, rule changes and what to prepare before the deadline sets out the timetable and the new scoring rules, so they are not repeated here.

For the fund as a whole, including who can bid and how bids are scored, see our complete guide to the Condition Improvement Fund.

High needs capital for new SEND places

New special school places, inclusion bases and SEND adaptations in mainstream schools are mainly funded through high needs provision capital allocations, which go to local authorities, not schools. The DfE's guidance describes "This £860 million in capital funding for 2026 to 2027" as "essential to increasing the capacity of mainstream schools to meet a wider range of needs".

The DfE says "We encourage local authorities to use this funding to set up inclusion bases", and that it anticipates authorities "may wish to invest in" adaptations to mainstream buildings and "special school expansions (where appropriate)". A local authority planning more special school places has to show "an evidence-based rationale for why need cannot be met in mainstream settings." The funding is not for maintenance work, which the guidance says "should continue to be covered by Devolved Formula Capital funding (DFC), the Condition Improvement Fund ( CIF ) or School Condition Allocations ( SCA )", so condition work on a special school building still goes through those routes.

Where a special school's existing buildings need condition work, our guide to condition surveys for special schools covers what the survey behind a CIF bid needs to include.

For a school, the route is through its local authority's SEND and capital teams, and a school that can show the need, a site and a feasible design gives the authority a project it can fund from its allocation.

Before appointing a design team for that work, our guide to choosing an architect for a school capital project sets out what to check and the questions to ask.

New mainstream places are funded differently. The DfE says "We also provide capital funding to local authorities to create places for mainstream pupils through the basic need allocations", so a school that needs more mainstream capacity should start with its local authority's school place planning team rather than a CIF expansion bid.

Urgent capital support and the other programmes

Urgent capital support is part of CIF but works differently. It is "specifically for urgent condition issues that pose the threat of immediate school closure", for schools that cannot wait for the next CIF round. The DfE offers it "primarily as a loan, subject to an assessment of finances" and provides grant funding only "in exceptional circumstances". The article on CIF, SCA and urgent capital support linked above compares the three in detail.

Two other programmes sit outside the annual cycle:

• RAAC. The DfE funds refurbishment or rebuilding for schools with confirmed reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, and this support is "in addition to any SCA or funding through CIF for the 2026 to 2027 financial year".

• The School Rebuilding Programme. Schools are nominated by their responsible body and then selected by the DfE, rather than bidding in the usual CIF way. The education estates strategy says the DfE "will select a further 250 schools by early 2027". Responsible bodies were invited to nominate schools "by Thursday 23 April 2026". By spring 2027, the DfE says, responsible bodies "will be notified to confirm if schools and sixth-form colleges they nominated have been selected". The CIF guidance adds that schools "selected for SRP should not normally apply for CIF funding", although schools "with open SRP nominations are not discouraged from applying".

Past one-off top-ups should not be relied on. The Healthy Pupils capital fund, for example, "was a one-year fund for the 2018 to 2019 financial year only", and no school should plan around a repeat.

Further ahead, the DfE has said it plans to introduce "a new programme by autumn 2028 to replace the Condition Improvement Fund", under which eligible bodies "will no longer need to submit full bids". It says it will set out the details "in due course".

Can a school combine funding routes?

Often it has to. A new facility usually mixes condition work with new space, and each part may draw on a different source. An inclusion base funded through the local authority's high needs capital may sit beside a roof or heating replacement that the DfE expects to be covered by DFC, CIF or SCA rather than high needs capital. The DfE also asks local authorities to look for efficiencies by "combining condition works and expansion schemes". Keeping those costs clearly separated in the cost plan is what lets each funder see exactly what it is paying for.

Within CIF, a school can add its own money. The guidance says "Additional points are available in the assessment for taking out a loan or making a financial contribution", though "it is the overall score that is the deciding factor".

Maximising funding for new facilities

The groundwork is best done before a funding window opens:

• Get independent evidence of condition. This round's guidance says "Surveys should not be older than 1 October 2023. They need to be independent and impartial."

• Cost the options, not just the answer. CIF now requires "a bespoke, costed options appraisal that is unique to your project", and a duplicated appraisal "will not assist schools in competing for funding" and "could, in some circumstances, lead to an application being disqualified".

• Design to the area guidelines. If a CIF expansion project involves a new building, the DfE asks that it meets the requirements in Building Bulletin 103 or 104, and a feasibility study should explain "What is the design solution and why will it work."

• Time the programme to the money. "The majority of funds will be allocated for projects that complete by 31 March 2028", and "all projects must complete by 31 March 2029".

• Plan for a no. The DfE says "On average only around a third of applications are successful each year." A school with a phased plan can use its devolved formula capital for the most urgent part, or bid again if a further round opens. Urgent capital support is not a second chance for a rejected bid: it is for an urgent condition issue that puts pupils or staff at risk and threatens closure of the whole or a significant part of the school (academies, sixth-form colleges and VA schools that do not receive SCA only), and only where there is "a genuine and immediate need for UCS" and the school "cannot wait until the next round of the condition improvement fund". It is offered "primarily as a loan".

Related guides

• CIF 2027 to 2028: key dates, rule changes and what to prepare by 15 December

• CIF, SCA and urgent capital support: which one applies to your school?

• School Condition Allocation (SCA): how academy trusts should prioritise the money

• Designing a SEN building: the brief, the spaces and how it is funded

Funding new school facilities with Grayling Thomas Architects

We are a RIBA Chartered Practice that designs and delivers school and SEN buildings, from education surveys through to completed projects. Grayling Thomas Architects was CIF bid writer, lead consultant and architect for Dorothy Goodman School in Hinckley, a new building for an existing special school, funded through the Condition Improvement Fund.

We work with a school as lead consultant and architect, preparing the evidence, the design and the costed options with the school so that each funding route gets the case it needs. The application itself stays the school's responsibility: as the DfE puts it, "technical advisers cannot apply on your behalf". Our CIF funding page explains how we work on CIF projects, and our school funding page covers the other routes. To talk about a new facility and how to fund it, contact Grayling Thomas Architects.