Theresa May’s education policies came under fresh attack on Saturday night amid evidence that the Tories’ flagship “free schools” programme wastes huge sums of public money while benefiting prosperous areas in the south far more than deprived places elsewhere.

With the prime minister already facing cross-party criticism over plans to open more grammar schools, ministers were confronted with data showing that new free schools in England will fail to meet urgent demand for new places, and cost taxpayers vast amounts of money when they fail to get off the ground.

In a further sign of unease, former schools minister David Laws, writing in Sunday’s Observer, called on May’s government to drop plans for more grammars from the next Queen’s speech because they are likely to “make our country a more unequal place”.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said analysis of data about the 111 new free schools announced last week showed that the 20 most deprived areas of the country would get just 12 new schools, with the 20 least deprived areas seeing 18 new free schools. Labour said that government figures showed the new schools meeting 50% of the requirement for new places in the south-east, and just 2% in the north-east.

“This week’s announcement simply does not address the looming crisis in school places,” Rayner said. “The government is completely neglecting certain areas. When the north-east gets two new schools and 2% of the places they need, local parents will know the system simply isn’t working for them.

It’s time for Theresa May to ditch damaging grammar school plans | David Laws Read more

“This wave of schools is so expensive that ministers haven’t dared publish the price tag, yet it isn’t even creating places in the areas that need them most. And this is at a time when existing schools are facing a severe funding crisis.

“The Tories should start meeting their promise not to cut school budgets, and make sure taxpayers get value for the money they are sinking in to pet projects.”

Separately, teachers’ unions accused ministers of wasting £138.5m on free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools that had either closed, partially closed or failed to open at all.

NUT general secretary Kevin Courtney accused the government of “appalling waste”, adding that the same amount of money would pay the salaries of 3,680 extra teachers for a year.

Free schools are new state schools not under local council control, with freedom over areas including staff pay and curriculums. A total of 124 have opened since 2015, with 373 more, including those announced last week, due to open. The government has pledged to 500 new free schools by September 2020.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “This analysis appears to be based on a misunderstanding of the role free schools play in local communities. Free schools create school places and are popular with parents, including in areas where existing schools do not meet their standards of expectation, as they are among the highest-performing non-selective state schools.

“Since 2014, more than 80% of mainstream free schools have been approved in areas where there was a need for more school places and almost half are in the 30% most deprived areas of the country.”

At its annual conference in Cardiff, the NUT threatened strike action over funding cuts in England’s schools, agreeing to ballot on a one-day strike. Teachers say spending cuts are leading to job losses, timetable cuts and courses being cancelled. The DfE, however, says funding is at its highest ever level.

In his article, Laws, who was the Lib Dem schools minister in the coalition government and is now executive chairman of the Education Policy Institute, aims his fire at May’s plan to lift the ban on new grammar schools.

He writes: “The poorest children are very unlikely to gain from any solution involving a selection test at age 11. By then, 60% of the disadvantaged gap has already emerged, meaning these children are on average 10 months of learning behind their peers.

The Observer view on education and social mobility | Observer editorial Read more

“To give these children a chance, the government needs to improve the quality of early-years education, increase the number of excellent primary schools in poor areas, attract and develop more high-quality teachers, and protect pupil premium funding.”

Laws says education secretary Justine Greening is doing her best to justify and promote a policy that will achieve the opposite of what May says she wants to do in reducing inequality and promoting social mobility. “

Justine Greening is loyally trying to make the best of a policy which all the evidence suggests should be buried. Scarce time spent trying to make the unworkable work is diverting her from the important efforts she is doing to improve teacher training and target the areas of greatest need.”