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Guidance

Basic need allocations

Basic need capital funding allocated to each local authority to create new places from 2011 to 2028, and how to use it.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
17 March 2016
Last updated:
27 April 2026
Show all updates

  1. Updated 'Basic need capital allocations guidance' and 'Basic need grant determination' for the 2026 to 2027 financial year. Made minor changes to 'Basic need allocations for 2028 and funding for 2011 to 2028'.

  2. Updated 'Basic need allocations for 2028 and funding for 2011 to 2028'.

  3. Updated the basic need grant determination and the basic need allocations guidance for the 2025 to 2026 financial year.

  4. Updated to include funding up to 2028.

  5. Updated basic need allocation guidance and basic need grant determination documents for the 2024 to 2025 financial year. Minor changes made to 'Basic need allocations for 2026 and funding for 2011 to 2026'.

  6. Funding spreadsheet has been updated to include 2025 to 2026 allocation for Kent.

  7. Updated to include funding up to 2026.

  8. Updated 'Basic Need funding allocations for 2024 and 2025 and funding for 2011 to 2025', 'Capital funding for school places needed by 2024 and 2025: explanatory note on methodology', and 'Basic need grant determination'. Added 'Basic Need allocations guidance 2022 to 2023'. Removed 'Basic need allocations for 2023: quality assurance note'.

  9. Updated the basic need allocations, explanatory note, quality assurance note and grant determination for 2023. We have also removed the presumption basic need grant explanatory note.

  10. Minor changes to explanatory note and funding spreadsheets, and 2019 to 2020 grant determination document replaced by 2020 to 2021 version.

  11. Updated basic need allocations, explanatory note and quality assurance note for 2022.

  12. Added the grant determination setting out the conditions of the grant and payments in the 2019 to 2020 financial year.

  13. Replaced 'Basic need allocations for 2021 and funding for 2011 to 2021' with updated versions.

  14. Replaced all attachments except 'Presumption basic need grant explanatory note' with updated versions.

  15. Attached updated version of 'Presumption basic need grant explanatory note'.

  16. Updated basic need allocations to show 2020 to 2021 data and funding for 2011 to 2021. Updated the 'explanatory note on methodology' and 'quality assurance note' documents for 2020 to 2021. Added Presumption basic need grant explanatory note.

  17. Updated footnotes in spreadsheets.

  18. Documents updated to reflect funding allocations adjustment as part of the annual update.

  19. Updated basic need allocations to show 2019 to 2020 data and funding for 2011 to 2020. Also updated the 'explanatory note on methodology' and 'quality assurance note' documents for 2019 to 2020.

  20. Updated all documents to reflect the final capacity of free schools due to open in September 2016.

  21. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Basic need allocations for 2028 and funding for 2011 to 2028

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 82 KB

Capital funding for school places needed by 2028: explanatory note on methodology

PDF, 1.15 MB, 8 pages

Basic need grant determination: 2026 to 2027

PDF, 147 KB, 2 pages

Basic need capital allocations guidance: 2026 to 2027

PDF, 194 KB, 8 pages

Details

Basic need funding is the money we give local authorities each year to help them fulfil their duty to make sure there are enough school places for children in their local area.

Allocations for the 2026 to 2027 and 2027 to 2028 financial years, announced in 2025, will support local authorities to create the new school places they need by September 2028. This is in addition to allocations announced in 2023, for the 2025 to 2026 financial year, for school places needed by September 2026.

‘Capital funding for school places needed by 2028: explanatory note on methodology’ explains how we calculated the funding for each local authority, using data from the school capacity survey.

‘Basic need grant determination: 2026 to 2027’ sets out the conditions of the grant for payments in the 2026 to 2027 financial year. The Secretary of State for Education makes grant determinations under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003.

‘Basic need allocations 2026 to 2027: guidance’ is intended to support local authorities as they consider how to best use their basic need allocations for the 2026 to 2027 financial year.

Local authorities also get high needs provision capital allocations.

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