By Grayling Thomas Architects · October 2026

Yes, if the Department for Education's plans go ahead: the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) is due to end in its current form. The department's education estates strategy, updated 16 February 2026, says it will introduce "a new programme from autumn 2028 to replace the Condition Improvement Fund so that they no longer need to submit full bids for this funding". The strategy does not say the money will be withdrawn. It plans that Responsible Bodies eligible for CIF will still receive capital maintenance funding, allocated without the competitive bid. The strategy gives no earlier end date for CIF, and the department has not yet published how the new programme will allocate money or what it will be called.

That is the short answer. The longer one matters more to a school business manager or trust estates lead, because the change moves the work rather than removing it. A bid written once a year is replaced by evidence held all year round.

Is CIF funding ending, or just the bidding?

The bidding. The strategy is clear that the funding stream continues and the application process is what goes. Its timeline for 2028 puts it in one line: Responsible Bodies that are eligible for the Condition Improvement Fund "will receive this capital maintenance funding through a new programme where they will no longer need to submit full bids."

The reason given is equally plain. In the department's own words: "Responsible Bodies have told us that the Condition Improvement Fund process can be burdensome and does not allow them to plan sufficiently." Anyone who has assembled a CIF application against a deadline, with survey evidence, cost plans and a funding case in a few weeks, will recognise that description.

So the honest reading is this. CIF as a once-a-year competition is due to end, if the strategy is delivered as written. On the strategy's plans, capital maintenance money for smaller trusts, voluntary aided bodies and sixth-form colleges is not.

What the strategy does not say is just as important. It does not set out the allocation method, the data the department will rely on, or whether there will be any further CIF bidding rounds before the new programme starts. Any article that gives you a firm date for a future round is guessing. Watch the Condition Improvement Fund guidance on gov.uk, which is where round information has been published.

What does the education estates strategy actually say?

The Education Estates Strategy: a decade of national renewal is the DfE's long-term plan for school and college buildings in England. CIF is only one part of it. The parts that bear most directly on condition funding are these.

More money for maintenance overall. The strategy commits to investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034-35 in capital maintenance and renewal, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025-26. It also promises Responsible Bodies greater certainty about future allocations, with advance notice of significant methodology changes.

A new programme in place of CIF. The strategy plans it by autumn 2028, with eligible Responsible Bodies told in advance. The strategy says: "Eligible Responsible Bodies will be contacted ahead of the launch of the new programme."

A separate route for larger renewal work. The Renewal and Retrofit Programme is backed by £710 million to 2029-30. It is aimed at buildings that typically cannot be fixed from existing maintenance funding but are not at the point of needing to be rebuilt. The strategy set out a pilot from April 2026 of around 50 projects in the East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber and the South East. From 2027 the department plans to extend it to all regions, with over £450 million in projects, and says it will be national by 2029. Schools do not apply for the pilot; the DfE contacts those taking part, and says it will set out a process to join from April 2027.

Better data as the foundation. The strategy links the move away from full bids to better estate data, with Responsible Bodies collecting their own condition data in line with common standards and sharing it with the department. It plans pilots in 2026-27, national rollout from autumn 2027 and two-way data sharing by 2028.

The pattern is consistent. Funding is meant to follow evidence the department already holds, rather than evidence a trust assembles for a single application.

Who is affected, and who is not?

CIF has never been open to everyone. The current gov.uk guidance says: "Eligible academies, sixth form colleges and voluntary aided schools can apply for funding in an annual bidding round."

Larger bodies already receive formula funding instead. When the DfE opened the 2026 to 2027 bidding round on 21 October 2025, its update for academies set out the split: "Eligible schools in smaller academy trusts and smaller voluntary aided (VA) bodies and sixth-form colleges should apply to CIF, if they have condition investment requirements." Local authorities, eligible larger multi-academy trusts and larger VA school bodies receive a School Condition Allocation (SCA) to invest across their schools.

That means the change falls mainly on the bodies that bid today:

• single academy trusts and small multi-academy trusts below the SCA threshold;

• smaller voluntary aided bodies;

• sixth-form colleges.

For these bodies, the new programme could be good news. Planning becomes easier when funding does not depend on winning a competition. The risk is the other side of the same coin. If allocation follows data, a trust with thin or out-of-date condition evidence may find its needs undercounted, and there will be no bid in which to make the case.

Outcomes for the 2026 to 2027 CIF were announced on 22 May 2026. For context on scale, the DfE's June 2026 update said its final school condition allocations were part of over £2.1 billion committed for 2026 to 2027 for improving the condition of the school estate.

What will the new programme need from a trust?

Here the strategy gives direction without detail, so treat what follows as preparation rather than prediction.

The department wants every Responsible Body to manage its estate to a known standard. It published the School Estate Management Standards in April 2025 and is asking Responsible Bodies to make an annual return from autumn 2026 on how they meet them. One of the outcomes it lists is that "Responsible Bodies have an asset management plan in place and conduct strategic reviews."

There is also a digital service, Manage Your Education Estate, intended to bring guidance, programmes, funding and condition data into one place. The June 2026 update notes that eligible responsible bodies can already view their allocations there.

Put together, the likely shape is a system in which the department sees your estate through the data you hold and share. A trust that already has:

1. a current condition survey for every building, with priorities and costs;

2. an asset management plan that ranks projects across the estate;

3. records of what has been repaired, replaced or deferred, and why;

will be in a far stronger position than one that commissions evidence only when a round opens. This is the same evidence a strong CIF bid has always needed. The difference is that it now has to exist all the time, not just in the weeks before a deadline. The practice's education surveys page explains what a building survey for this purpose covers.

What should a trust do between now and autumn 2028?

Keep using CIF while it exists, and build the evidence the next system is likely to rely on. In practical terms:

• Do not stop planning bids. The strategy gives no earlier end date. If another round opens, a well-prepared project still stands the best chance, and the funding it brings is real. The practice's guide to what schools should be doing about CIF in 2026 sets out the preparation that applies to any round.

• Get the School Estate Management Standards return right. It is the first regular, structured account the department will see of how a trust manages its buildings.

• Bring condition data up to date. Surveys that are several years old describe buildings that have since moved on. Under a data-led allocation, stale evidence is likely to cost money.

• Turn surveys into a ranked plan. An asset management plan that links each project to its condition evidence is useful under either system.

• Look at projects that fall between maintenance and rebuild. Roofs, heating and electrical systems at the end of their life are the type of work the Renewal and Retrofit Programme describes. Even though it is not an open application route today, knowing where your buildings sit on that line helps when the department makes contact.

None of this is wasted if the new programme looks different from what the strategy describes. Good condition evidence wins bids today and is the strategy's stated basis for allocation tomorrow.

What a strong case looks like in practice

The quality of evidence has always decided CIF outcomes, and it will not stop mattering when the competition ends. Grayling Thomas Architects was CIF bid writer, lead consultant and architect for Dorothy Goodman School in Hinckley, a £6.2 million new building for an existing special school, funded entirely through the Condition Improvement Fund. Projects at that scale depend on a clear account of need, cost and deliverability, which is exactly what a data-led system will ask a trust to hold as standard.

How we help trusts through the change

We help trusts with CIF bid writing and support, condition surveys, and the design and delivery of the school buildings that follow. For trusts that still bid, we help prepare projects for any further round. For those looking ahead to the new programme, we help build the survey evidence and asset planning that both systems reward. Our CIF funding service explains how we work, and our school funding hub covers the other routes, including School Condition Allocation.

If you want to talk through where your estate stands, send us a CIF enquiry and we will come back to you.