Skyrocketing prices force school leaders into ‘unpalatable’ choices to keep classrooms open this winter.
School leaders face “apocalyptic” energy price hikes of up to 587 percent, warning of cuts to jobs, books, and building work to fill budget black holes.
Others say heating will be turned down and class sizes raised without adequate government aid, as schools embark on energy-saving drives and accelerate net-zero investments. [Links and some bold added]
Schools Week analysis suggests energy will cost trusts hundreds of millions more this autumn and winter than two years ago, with some now unable to find deals at all.
Emma Knights, chief executive of the National Governance Association, said new prime minister Liz Truss and the next education secretary must hand schools a lifeline with “urgency”.
Bills rise sixfold
A recent acceleration in already fast-rising prices leaves many schools in an “apocalyptic situation”, according to Leigh Academies Trust chief executive Simon Beamish.
Energy consultants estimate around two-thirds of schools renew each year. More than 350 renewed through one broker, Zenergi, in August alone.
In January, its clients’ average bills doubled on new deals. But by August – after Russia’s Ukraine invasion – they had soared 274 percent for electricity and 499 percent for gas.
Leigh Academies Trust expects an £8.7 million rise across 31 schools – up 514 percent, and that could escalate at any time. It is on a variable tariff, with many suppliers ditching fixed deals altogether.
“How do you budget when you don’t know month-to-month costs?” asked Beamish.
Woodbridge High School in London was quoted as an eye-watering 587 percent rise for gas.
John Haw, managing director of Fidelity Energy, said clients have “gone white” when shown projected costs, with record demand for brokers’ help.
Schools Week analysis suggests trusts’ combined energy bills for autumn and winter likely more than trebled on 2020-21 levels – up more than £400 million across 10,000 academies.
With around 12,000 schools still maintained, the whole sector’s extra costs will be far higher.
Deficits and austerity 2.0
Many schools now predict deficits, according to heads’ union NAHT.
Energy bills, unfunded pay deals, and wider inflation – all higher than expected months ago – are forcing leaders to tear up budgets. Several calls for plugging shortfalls are “impossible”.
At The Elliot Foundation, energy will cost £1.4 million and wages £1 million more than expected, trebling its deficit to £3.4 million.
Stuart Gardner, CEO of The Thinking Schools Academy Trust, said quadrupling electricity bills and other increases leave a £3.2 million black hole – £1 in every £25 spent.
Coventry cabinet member Richard Brown has similarly warned of a “real challenge” balancing its books amid rising costs, with education £700,000 more than planned.
Leaders have gone white when shown projected costs
Without urgent grants or price caps, leaders warn austerity is back.
“Spiralling energy costs will inevitably lead to resource and staffing cuts unless schools are given additional support,” said Dr. Karen Roberts, CEO of The Kemnal Academies Trust.
Aylsham Learning Federation executive head Duncan Spalding has said it could only save enough through “large-scale redundancies, a diminished curriculum [and] stopping vital maintenance work” – which would “eviscerate our provision”.
Lee Mason-Ellis, CEO of The Pioneer Academy Trust, said that before long its schools “won’t be financially viable without significantly reducing staffing, visits, and resources”.
The NAHT says teaching assistants’ hours could face cuts nationwide.
On Monday, parents across the Saffron Academy Trust received a letter warning of not only job cuts but also bigger classes and asking parents to fund resources.
Meanwhile, Caroline Barlow, head of Heathfield Community College in East Sussex, said trips, clubs, music classes, and reading books could prove “collateral damage of universal belt-tightening”.
Some schools are shelving capital projects. David Collins, head of the Knole Academy in Kent, said new playground and astroturf facilities were “off the table”.
‘Unpalatable’: Turning down heating
Many leaders’ priority is radically curbing consumption.
“If it’s a choice between switching off lights and turning down heating or paying teachers, it’s not a difficult one,” said Hugh Greenway, The Elliot Foundation CEO.
“There’s no reason lights need to be on at 5 am or computers left on overnight.”
His trust will share usage data with pupils and parents, building support for “changing behaviors”.
Chris Felgate, director of consultancy Ginger Energy, reports “mass installations” of solar panels among school clients, as well as LED lights and efficient boilers.
Former government adviser Jonathan Simons recently called for £2.5 billion in solar panel grants for schools, highlighting an opportunity for “progress on net zero”.
Soaring energy costs mean “payback periods” for the panels have dramatically reduced.
But while Mason-Ellis said accelerating The Pioneer Academy’s long-standing green drive-through measures like insulation could shave a fifth off consumption, it will “not significantly dent” extra costs.
Collins agreed, with Knole Academy’s existing solar panels only contributing one-twentieth of its electricity.
John Winter, CEO of the Weydon Multi Academy Trust, and Caroline Derbyshire, CEO of the Saffron Academy Trust, fear more “unpalatable” decisions.
“Limiting the use of heating during the winter” is an option for Derbyshire.
Winter has not ruled out “sticking kids in body warmers” to cut heating bills or even reducing time in school. “Everything is on the table – we can’t afford to be able to pay teachers.”
Felgate said clients were considering clamping down on teachers’ fan heaters, and even closing pools, flood-lit sports pitches, or underused classroom blocks.
Sector not ‘awash with cash’
Most trust leaders interviewed by Schools Week expect to use reserves, preventing immediate redundancies.
Savings during Covid lockdowns pushed academy surpluses to £3.96 billion last year. This is enough to pay off combined deficits of £22 million in the sector 178 times over. Maintained schools saw similar record improvements, with a net £2 billion surplus in 2020-21.
While schools may appear “awash with cash” to the Treasury, reserves are “not universal and will run out pretty quickly,” said Stephen Morales, chief executive of the Institute of School Business Leadership.
The DfE has resisted funding pleas for months. A spokesperson said schools received £4 billion more this year and wide-ranging value-for-money support.
But unfunded hikes in other costs, such as teacher pay, have wiped this out. The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently said the government will no longer meet its promise to restore school budgets to 2010 levels.
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Gosh, and I thought “Green Energy” was going to make cost of electricity to drop! What happened?
Maybe now there citizens will rise up and demand that the government gets fossil fuel plants back up ands running ands get rid of unreliable wind ands solar.
I assume the solutions to the high cost of energy will include cold class rooms in the winter and hot classes in warm weather. Studies as far back as the 1960’s have consistently shown that classroom participation dramatically drops when it is too cold or too warm. Add this to the impact of cutting personnel and other resources, and learning will be adversely impacted.
Green Energy only worlds when the wind is blowing and sun is shinning