The Welsh Government has announced an additional £40.5 million this year to support essential capital repairs and maintenance across schools, colleges and universities -strengthening learning environments and helping meet Wales’s long‑term climate goals.
The new allocation builds on the £20 million announced in January, bringing total additional capital maintenance funding for education settings in 2026/27 to over £60 million.
Funding will be delivered through the Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme and Medr, supporting large‑scale maintenance and refurbishment works.
The package includes £15 million allocated to all Welsh local authorities for school maintenance and £25.5 million split evenly between colleges and universities.
The investment will fund essential works such as:
- Roof replacements
- New window systems
- Upgraded heating and ventilation systems
- Improved insulation
- Electrical infrastructure upgrades
For colleges, the additional funding will help expand workshop spaces to support rising participation in vocational courses. For universities, previous funding rounds have enabled projects that reduce operating costs and enhance student and staff facilities – a trend expected to continue with this investment.
The Sustainable Communities for Learning programme has a strong focus on sustainability, and the funding will support energy‑efficiency improvements across the education estate. This includes:
- Better insulation
- Modern, efficient heating systems
- Low‑energy window replacements
- Ventilation upgrades that support healthy indoor environments
These improvements reduce energy consumption, cut carbon emissions, and make buildings cheaper to run, contributing to Wales’s wider climate commitments.
The Welsh Government says the investment will deliver:
- Higher‑quality learning environments
- Better air quality and comfort for pupils, students and staff
- Reduced maintenance backlogs
- Longer‑term resilience of the education estate
By supporting modern, sustainable and accessible facilities, the funding aims to improve learner experiences while reducing future capital pressures on local authorities, colleges and universities.
Lynne Neagle, Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Education, commented:
“In the last ten years we have invested £3.6 billion in over 330 projects to build and improve new school and college buildings in every local authority, through the Sustainable Communities for Learning programme.
“This funding has helped to provide modern, fit for purpose buildings, designed to educate the next generation and invested in our local communities.
“The additional funding announced today will help support local authorities across Wales to invest once again in our school estate.”
The announcement marks another step in Wales’s long‑term strategy to modernise its education buildings and ensure learning environments are safe, efficient and fit for future generations.
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