£200m to provide more school places

Thousands of primary school places are to be created to ease the crisis facing parents in London.

The recession has driven growing numbers of parents out of private schools to seek a free education for their children in state primaries.

But councils across the city have warned they are struggling to cope as a sharp rise in the birth rate exacerbates the problem.

Research by the Evening Standard suggested that 15,000 families were rejected by their first-choice state primary schools for September while councils were being forced to create places for 2,500 more children than originally planned, often in temporary huts.

Ministers will announce about £200million of extra funding this week to create more primary places in the worst hit areas of England, which include Richmond, Ealing and Kingston.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families blamed some local authorities for failing to plan for rising demand.

"We know that specific areas now say that they are dealing with unanticipated rises in demand for reception classes over the next few years," he said. "It is clear that some simply did not plan for the rise in local birth-rates But we accept others face exceptional rises in demand for new primary place through a range of local circumstances."

The London Councils lobby group has warned that the city will face a shortfall of 18,300 places by 2014.