Robert Owen Academy, Hereford, a free school for 14-19 year-olds opened in September 2013, closed at the end of August 2018 after having been twice judged inadequate.

Figures published yesterday show this failed institution cost £7,343,177 in capital costs.  It had capacity for 500 students but had only 41 when it was closed.   In June 2016, the Robert Owen Academy Trust was issued with a Financial Notice to Improve.  

The same data, which still do not give capital costs for five free schools which opened in 2011, show that another free school which closed at the end of August, Floreat Brentford in Hounslow, cost the taxpayer over £2m in capital costs.  Floreat, the trust behind the school, blamed problems moving to permanent premises and ‘critically low’ funding.  

*Downloadable here