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Education

£1billion of title deeds for schools transferred to private companies

85 replies

BeingAMumIsFun · 15/08/2012 00:00

Before the election councils in England held the title deeds to schools and land valued at over £2.5 billion

But most people don't know the very fine print of the academies bill means

  1. The title deeds of the school and the land are transferred to a private company when the school becomes an academy


  1. Michael Gove borrows £25,000 to pay the legal fees for the private companies to ensure the title deeds are transferred from the council (us taxpayers who paid to build the schools - to these private companies)


So far £1billion of title deeds for schools have been transferred from taxpayers - with Michael gove increasing the deficit by £481,750,000 - just for legal fees to transfer ownership of the schools from councils to private companies

So who has the title deeds now

Tory party member Philip Harris has his hands on £millions worth of title deeds. (Philip Harrismade donations to David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party. He is considered to be one of his personal friends

Stanley Fink, another friend of Cameron has donated £2.62m to the Conservative party and David Cameron made Fink a Lord as soon as he came to power, and David Cameron has since made him Tory Party Treasurer and also handed his company £millions title deeds for schools

And today David Cameron has told us, as well as changing the law to transfer state assets to Tory party members (and I thought only China did that) - now he is changing the laws to allow them to start selling the Land

Just so you know - Stanley Fink - his company states in their accounts - any extra money - his company has a policy to transfer the funds to the Cayman Islands - via a stockbrokers that Stanley fink just happens to be on the board of

Now if I remember correctly the directors of southern cross did the same thing with care homes - selling them off - the money disappears offshore the company goes bust and pensioners left high and dry (with taxpayers expected to step in)

Well Cameron has just announced Tory party members who have their hands on the title deeds for our schools and the school land can start doing the same thing

And just to be clear - Stanley Fink's company accounts for the schools also state - if Stanley fink's company controlling the schools, the school budgets and the title deeds goes bust - Stanley Fink (Tory party treasurer on the Times rich list) only has to pay £10

Academies are not about education - they are about asset stripping and English parents and children, will find themselves, just like the pensioners and their families who were left without facilities due to the very rich directors of Southern Cross selling off the assets and disappearing in to the sunset

Do MIchael Gove and David Cameron shout from the rooftops that they are spending £25,000 per school to cover legal fees to transfer the title deeds to Tory Party members - no

I wonder why not - could it be they don't want England's parents to know the real intentions of the academies bill - it's not about education - it is about asset stripping by Tory Party members - thanks to David Cameron, Michael Gove, every Tory MP and every LIberal MP

These are your schools - they do not belong to the Tory Party (well they do now)

Ask Michael Gove if your council gets the money when they sell off school land

Ask Stanley Fink (ARK SCHOOLS) - will this Tory Party treasurer be selling playing fields and as his accounts state, the money be transferred to the Cayman Islands (with his stockbrokers taking a cut along the way)

Serious questions - £1billion worth of assets stripped -- £half a billion in legal fees to pay for it (which we the taxpayers must pay back as Gove had to borrow the money)
OP posts:
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spanieleyes · 02/04/2016 20:18

The government have solved it in their own way-now all the land will be owned by the Department of Education instead!

www.theguardian.com/educatio...s-decry-governments-academy-schools-land-grab

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Abuelita · 02/04/2016 12:29

It isn't quite true that local authority land is automatically transferred to academy trusts. If a school was an LA community school before conversion the academy trust will most likely lease the land over 125 years at a peppercorn rent. If the school was a Foundation school it's likely the Foundation would have owned the land. If it was a CofE, RC, Muslim, Jewish etc Voluntary Aided school, the land was likely already owned by the religious authority. If it was a CofE Voluntary Controlled school, I haven't a clue. Neither has the DfE - it recently admitted it didn't know if the Government owned the land on which many academies stood or its value. It would cost £20m-£40m to sort out so they're not bothering. The full story's on Schools Week: schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-needs-to-spend-20m-to-resolve-academy-land-confusion/

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Gfplux · 31/03/2016 19:21

All very curious and disturbing.
Private company's involved in Education can only be for profit now or in the future. Rules governing assets such as land can always be changed.
125 year leases can be very valuable. It's all about the long game.

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getanotherloan · 23/03/2016 11:36

I came to here because one of my Facebook friends had linked to it and shared it with loads of her other friends - curious state of affairs.

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nlondondad · 21/03/2016 17:54

I am also really puzzled that this zombie thread is being "pointed to" by mumsnet.

The current thread about academies, as of posting this, is here:-

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/2593393-Turning-all-schools-into-academies

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seanferguson13 · 21/03/2016 11:58

Please sign this petition to get this backdoor privatisation reversed:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124702

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NattyGolfJerkin · 20/03/2016 16:26

Ah, thanks rusty

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RustyBear · 20/03/2016 15:17

MNHQ explained a few days ago that the 'trending' threads are chosen automatically based on the number of recent views rather than recent posts. Presumably the In the News section works in the same way, and a lot of people have been searching for threads on the subject and looking at this one.

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Eustace2016 · 20/03/2016 12:45

I wondered why too particularly as it is clear from the first few posts the heading is a misleading lie and in fact academies are leased so it is utterly wrong to say freedhold ownership passes to outsiders!

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NattyGolfJerkin · 20/03/2016 10:51

Exactly Edith, so why have MNHQ linked a dead thread to a current issue when there are more recent active versions of the same conversation? Daft

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EdithWeston · 20/03/2016 08:38

ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE

There are plenty of newer threads, with less inaccurate/astroturfy titles, which could be chosen as the featured thread on academies.

(I posted on this one three and a half years ago!)

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JosiePye · 20/03/2016 08:35

Maybe because the issue has just been brought under the spotlight by the new education white paper? Yesterday I read a blog by Michael Rosen about exactly this matter.

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NattyGolfJerkin · 20/03/2016 08:33

This what I mean, just in case it's unclear. I clicked the schools thread as it caught my eye when I was on another (which actually is active).

£1billion of title deeds for schools transferred to private companies
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NattyGolfJerkin · 20/03/2016 08:29

Why is this thread linked to currently in the news on MN when the most recent post was almost 2yrs ago? When you click on the link for "school title deeds to be privately owned" this zombie comes up.

Why are MNHQ linking to zombie threads?

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FamiliesShareGerms · 24/05/2014 16:58

If it's a brand new free school (ie not an existing VA school converting to a free school) then it is the same as any other new free school, regardless of whether the trust is - say / the diocese of Lambeth, a parent group or inded ARK .

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nlondondad · 24/05/2014 16:47

What is the status of a Church sponsored Free School

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prh47bridge · 24/05/2014 13:40

New schools are free schools or VA schools.

Free schools are funded by the DfE. There are legal restrictions so that any land that was purchased with public money cannot be disposed of without the DfE's permission. The land reverts to DfE ownership if the school closes.

Arrangements for VA schools are between the LA and the school. In the cases of which I am aware the LA is leasing the land and buildings to the school.

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janiebond · 24/05/2014 11:46

Has anyone come across similar issues with Church of England schools

Gather that government funding is obtained, then funding & land & new school is paid for by local authority, is then given as donation to Church of England!

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Talkinpeace · 30/05/2013 19:17

The lack of financial transparency in Academy schools is the greater issue.

DCLG are forcing all Councils - and hence LEAs - to publish details of all spending over £500
but the DfE is exempting schools from this requirement.

"Lighter Touch" regulation has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster in the financial world and yet Gove is bringing it into education.

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muminlondon · 30/05/2013 17:14

The facts were jumbled in the OP so phr47bridge was entitled to dispute them. But it is an old thread from back in August 2012 which I assume was based on rumours about the £1 billion overspend on academies before the NAO report came out. That did turn out to be true, although land transfer costs were more to do with insurance and legal costs of transferring 125-year leases. Freehold can also be transferred directly from councils to academy trusts in some cases though. Now I'm off to watch 'V'.

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CatherineofMumbles · 30/05/2013 13:44

This is one of the best threads ever and should be published ideally in the Guardian and Telegraph as it shows how you always need to delve into the facts before jumping to conclusions and always read the underlying law and regulations.
It also shows how much people will seek to misrepresent things to con people into taking a particular view.*
Well said, Xenian and PRH.

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muminlondon · 29/05/2013 19:21

'If profit making schools produce worse outcomes for pupils or cost the taxpayer more I am against them'

Young people have been rioting in Chile and Sweden where profit-making has been introduced and there is increasing evidence of increased segregation. There is little evidence of better results - or according to the Academies Commission report it is mixed, sometimes worse, elsewhere statistically slight.

The problem in the UK is the dire record of outsourcing of essential services in terms of falsified reporting, poor value for money and failure to deliver. Think G4S (Olympics security), Serco GP out of hours service in Cornwall, the shambolic handling and complete lack of due diligence by a ministry that 'was not an intelligent customer' in the court interpreters contract. Do you think the DfE would be a more intelligent customer?

If the sponsorship of academies has been a 'beauty parade' completely lacking in rigour, no wonder we have academy heads involved in expenses scandals and cronyism - but introduce profit making into the mix and it won't be thousands of pounds wasted but more like the millions, and large risks involved in the other fiascos.

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prh47bridge · 29/05/2013 17:57

The people I know who made fortunes supplying equipment weren't taking anyone for a ride. They were providing good products at a reasonable price - better than schools could get from other suppliers.

At the moment no, the academies are not meant to make a profit. An academy must be run by a charity. As for how a school would make a profit, that would be for them to decide. Evidence from those countries such as Sweden that have profit making schools shows that it is achievable without cutting corners.

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Cloudminnow · 29/05/2013 16:16

Aren't the Academies themselves meant to make a profit, not just help other companies get rich?

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sugarfoot · 29/05/2013 13:43

People do indeed make fortunes supplying equipment to schools whilst taking them for a ride. www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16441186.

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