£18,000 to live near good school

PARENTS pay up to £18,000 more for their homes to live near top-performing primary schools, according to research out today. House prices in England are on average 8.8% higher in neighbourhoods where primary schools have a record of good results.

The cost of living near top state primary schools is revealed in a paper for the Royal Economic Society by Steve Gibbons, a lecturer in economic geography at the London School of Economics, and Stephen Machin, professor of economics at University College London.

They say: 'The sensitivity of property-prices to local primary school quality implies a backdoor selection of pupils by the incomes of their families.'

In London, the price tag for being near a good primary school is an extra £17,900, against an average for England of £9,700. For a house near one of the best state primary schools in London - those with identical results to private schools - the extra housing cost would be greater than the fees charged by a prep school.

Gibbons says: 'If you assume the English population as a whole is willing to spend the equivalent of 8.8% of the total value of the housing stock on education, that works out at an extra £1,200 per pupil. By contrast, the national literacy and numeracy strategy is costing £50 per pupil.'

Comparing these sums with private education fees, Gibbons and Machin conclude that in most areas it is cheaper to pay higher house prices, given that the equivalent cost of eight years at preparatory-school for one pupil is £38,000. Using a complex mathematical model, Gibbons and Machin disregarded special factors, such as the fact that more desirable houses might be near good primary schools merely by chance.

And while school catchment areas are no longer as rigid as they once were, they note: 'Primary school children typically attend schools that are within walking distance - at least in urban areas. Choosing a location close to the school maximises the chances of school admission.'

The paper targets primary schools whose test performance at key stage 2 - the national benchmark for 11-year-olds - is at least ten% above the average pass rate of 65% of pupils.

Previous studies looked at areas close to good secondary schools and showed a weak relationship between house prices and school performance. But Gibbons said: 'Teenagers are a fairly mobile group and can travel long distances to school.' By contrast, parents mainly want to use nearby primary schools.

'We would expect primary school performance to be the principal object of interest for parents seeking to improve their children's futures,' said Gibbons. 'There is evidence that early years attainments lead to later academic and economic success.

'What is more, investment in good primary education may be a prerequisite of admission to selective secondary schools.'