The National Audit Office (NAO) warns that the Department for Education (DfE) needs to exert more control to contain the rising costs of the programme and learn lessons from performance issues of existing free schools in order for them to succeed.
The Free Schools Programme is thought to cost over £1.5 billion, whereas a sum of £450m was originally allocated by the Treasury in 2010.
The NAO says that providing premises for Free Schools has been more expensive than the DfE originally assumed.
It also claims that the programme prioritised speed over value for money. Under the programme, 174 Free Schools have been opened since 2010.
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