What does the sector say?

Education unions have welcomed the plan to give councils, the bodies responsible for ensuring there are enough school places, more powers to build schools and to oversee the system.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: “In an increasingly fragmented school system we lack a co-ordinated approach to place planning."

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, said: “An enhanced role for local authorities would help the government to ensure that it has the levers it needs to ensure that all children and young people receive the high quality education to which they are entitled.”

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Bringing all schools under the same system of democratic accountability and support is the vital next step to tackling the fragmentation and waste that has resulted from academies and free schools.

“Academies and free schools are neither wanted nor needed. There is no evidence that they improve the educational outcomes of children or young people and have caused chaos for school place provision.”

But not everyone in the sector are fans of Labour’s plans to return powers back to councils – and some dispute their claims about free schools.

Mark Lehain, interim director of the New Schools Network, the charity that supports groups wishing to set up free schools, said: “We know that with a rising school population we will need more school places across the country, and free schools are the best means of meeting this need.

“They are the most cost effective way to create new school places, and are on course to provide more than 400,000 places in areas of need.

"Without free schools, these places would be created by expanding existing schools, placing further pressure on schools that are already at capacity.”