The Chancellor has announced his 2020 budget and again it’s positive news for education and education suppliers.

With a total increase of £116 billion promised for the education budget over the next 5 years, schools and colleges across the country can expect to receive an average increase of 4% in funding per pupil.

So what does this mean for education suppliers? We’ve combed through the budget 2020 report to pull out the key information for you.

---

Extra funding for arts and physical education

The budget will provide £120 million to help boost physical education (PE) and arts in schools.

• Secondary schools will receive an average of £25,000 a year for art related activities.
• Primary schools will receive £29 million a year by 2023-24 to support PE teaching and to improve sports facilities.

How this benefits education suppliers:

Schools will have money to invest in facilities, equipment, enhanced teaching and extra-curricular activities. This offers you a great opportunity to talk to schools about their needs and how you could help improve their sports and arts provision.

You can take a look at our School Finances Snapshot to find out more about how schools might invest this money.

---

STEM capital investment

The Chancellor has allocated £7 million from the budget to open 11 new specialist maths schools across the country and 8 new institutes of technology.

How this benefits education suppliers:

If you work specifically in science, technology, engineering or maths, you should keep your eyes peeled for new schools and institutions opening across the country because they are all going to need resources.

---

College estates and T Levels

Further Education (FE) college estates will receive a £1.5 billion boost over the next 5 years to improve their grounds and facilities.

In addition, £95 million has been pledged by the government to T Level providers to invest in facilities and industry-standard equipment. This T Level funding was announced back in February.

How this benefits education suppliers:

Investment in college grounds and facilities is always a good thing as it means suppliers in construction, grounds maintenance and landscaping will be in high demand by FE colleges.  

Regarding the T Level investment, although this funding was originally scheduled for February the money has now been made available to colleges to upgrade or even replace their equipment. Therefore, colleges and providers will be on the lookout for suppliers who can help them upgrade or improve.

It was also announced that schools would receive a share of a £640 billion pot for capital funding by 2024-25.

---

This is all positive news for education and education suppliers. Increases in funding creates more opportunities for education suppliers to support schools and provide them with valuable resources and supplies.