Highland Council reveals - via Freedom of Information requests - number of new classrooms created in Ross-shire and elsewhere using money for housing projects
Highland Council has only managed to build an additional 15 classrooms using developer contributions in the last five years despite sitting on more than £13 million of payments from 941 housing projects.
Freedom of Information requests revealed the sums the council has received from developers: £16.5 million; the total spent: more than £3.3 million; as well as where that was spent.
It would be expected that the remaining £13 million would be spent largely on the planned Tornagrain Primary.
Developer contributions are payments made to the council by those building housing schemes in places where there are not enough services or infrastructure to support those who would live in the development.
Payments for additional classrooms in schools are among the most common features of developer contributions but not the only one - sports facilities are another; which is added to the contractor’s total costs.
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The current rates paid by developers vary depending on the size of the primary school (from £13,155 per home to £14,623 per home) or secondary school (from £8352 per home to £9111 per home). And £1568 per home for community facilities.
The local authority confirmed that it took in up to the end of August: £3 million in 2019-20; £1.9 million in 2020-21; £3.1 million in 2021-22; £2.7 million in 2022-23; £3.8 million in 2023-24; and £1.5 million in 2024-25.
During the same period there was a huge boom in house building - 941 projects of varying sizes that were liable to pay developer contributions - yet just 496 additional places for pupils have been built.
The first project listed back in 2019/20 saw £339,378 put towards the new building for Inverness Royal Academy, which opened in 2016, but the council did not specify how many classrooms were delivered.
It was confirmed however that this “initial contribution for the new school building” helped deliver a planned capacity of 1452 pupils whereas the older facility had a capacity of just 1064.
The second was Ness Castle Primary School, which opened in February 2023. It saw 11 classrooms - accommodating as many as 317 pupils - built with contributions tallying just under £2.5 million.
In the whole rest of the Highland Council area just four other classrooms and one general purpose room have been built with developer contributions in the intervening half-decade.
Cauldeen Primary got £346,610 for a refurbishment/extension project that saw its capacity increase from 221 to 254 and one additional classroom.
North Kessock Primary got £87,069 for the installation of a modular classroom unit, raising its capacity from 125 to 175 with two additional classrooms.
And finally £35,568 went towards Tarradale Primary’s modular classroom unit that saw its capacity increase from 317 to 342 with one more classroom and a general purpose room.
Given the state of school rolls in Inverness, there will be many - particularly in south Inverness and Culloden - who will question where all the payments went and how they should be spent.
The most recent school roll forecasts say Charleston Academy is at 96 per cent capacity; Culloden (85 per cent); Inverness High (73 per cent); Inverness Royal Academy (94 per cent); and Millburn Academy (106 per cent).
But that does not tell the full story because for years Culloden’s school roll ranged from 111 per cent to 117 per cent capacity - a situation that only improved in the last two years with the introduction of modular classrooms.
Millburn Academy has had a school roll of 106 per cent in each of the last two years and in the two years prior it was 103 to 100 per cent.
Charleston Academy has gotten progressively more packed in recent years with a large spike in the most recent forecast - after holding steady at 88 per cent capacity it jumped to 96 per cent capacity, along with numerous other problems.
Taken together, these are the very issues that developer contributions were introduced to avoid.
Inverness West Councillor Alex Graham has been campaigning for improvements to Charleston Academy, he said it is “frustrating” developer contributions have not made more impact and perhaps it is time to review them.
“Hundreds of new houses have been built in the Westercraigs and Torvean areas in recent years, with at least 400 more new homes expected over the coming decade,” he said. “Charleston Academy and Kinmylies Primary have been under particular pressure.
“It is frustrating that developer contributions haven’t helped to mitigate the very crowded situation in these schools. It would be worth exploring whether there could be more flexibility about when developer contributions kick in and how they are applied.
“Highland Council reviewed developer contribution policy in May 2023, and hopefully these issues could be considered at the next review.”
Councillor Andrew Jarvie, who previously sought and secured a massive increase in developer contributions, now believes the lack of development on the school estate is a systemic problem.
“This result is no surprise from this council’s continued weak political leadership,” he said. “At every opportunity the council comes out to the public with the begging bowl, pleading that it’s broke and can’t afford anything. Meanwhile, the council reserves in the annual accounts this year rocketed above £200 million cash in the bank. How dare this council say it cannot afford to fix roads or build schools, it has enough money to build several schools with cash without borrowing.
“This council has pleaded endlessly how broke and helpless it is, that I think it has actually come to believe in its own spin.”
A council spokeswoman said: “Developer contributions will continue to be sought where forecasts indicate that development requires new or expanded school infrastructure to support development.”
