Almost half of parents in some areas educate their children outside their local authority because they believe that the standards of nearby schools are not good enough, according to a new report.

Policy Exchange, the centre-right think-tank, says that there is evidence that too few high-quality school places are being provided and that many families who cannot afford private schools are dissatisfied with their children’s schools. Parents are sending their children farther afield in an attempt to give them a better secondary education. The areas from which the highest proportion of children are “exported” are Reading, Bristol and the London boroughs of Lambeth, Hackney and Lewisham. Policy Exchange said that four children from Lambeth attend schools in Hertfordshire, 130 pupils travel to Hertfordshire from Islington and 109 travel from Greenwich to Kent. Children from Ealing travel to surrounding boroughs and to Hertfordshire and Slough.

The report highlights the lack of “meaningful choice” over where parents send their children. It claims that the Government is hostile to the idea of choice and calls for land used for educational purposes to be protected so that schools can respond to rising demand in the future.

In 2006 there were 757,623 surplus places in English schools — a rise of 8 per cent since 2001. The report says that local authorities are under instructions to bring these figures down and that schools are being merged and closed down and land put up for sale.

At the other end of the scale, it says that 70 local authorities have fewer school places than children, but there are still surplus places because so many parents choose schools in neighbouring authorities. It claims that this practice allows local authorities to justify not opening new schools.

Sam Freedman, Policy Exchange research director and co-author of the report Choice? What Choice?, said: “In a free market, if a good school is over-subscribed either the school will expand to meet rising demand or another good school will open nearby. Failing schools will lose pupils and be forced to close. Sadly, this is not what happens. Instead, the parents of children unlucky enough not to get a place at a good school have to settle for second, third or fourth-best.”

The report also highlights that in a fifth of local authorities more than 20 per cent of parents fail to get a place at their first-choice school and 8.3 per cent of admission decisions for secondary school places are appealed.

Lord Adonis, the Schools Minister, defended the system, saying: “Academies are just one of our reforms to ensure that all parents are able to choose a good school in their locality. The expansion of successful schools, and training and support for headteachers taking on underperforming schools, have also had a significant effect. The number of underperforming schools has more than halved in the last decade and more parents than ever before have access to good local schools for their children.”

The report surveyed 17 sponsors of 50 academies and said that, as the “only concrete example” of an increase in supply under Labour, the programme was successful in terms of results and parental popularity, partly because of what it says is the independence of the academies. It identified concern among sponsors that the Government will make more concessions to opponents of choice by reducing the independence of academies and giving more power to local authorities.

It says: “That independence is being eroded. The Government has forced the academies back into the National Curriculum and it is encouraging local authorities to co-sponsor academies, which entirely defeats the purpose of providing greater diversity.”

The Policy Exchange report recommends that the £2 million sponsorship fee for an academy is removed, that all schools are allowed to achieve academy status if they have an appropriate sponsor and that authorities should be compelled to plan for new schools run by academies when they do not fulfil demand for places in good schools.

A plan to introduce a network of special “studio schools”, where excluded and disaffected teenagers will be taught how to run businesses, is being considered by the Government.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said that studio schools may be part of the Children’s Plan, to be published next month. “There is a recognition that we need to keep pupils out of trouble,” a spokeswoman said. “The environment would be more akin to a workplace because school has not worked for these pupils.” The scheme is being piloted in Luton.

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