Under PSBP2, the Government aims to spend around £2bn from 2015-2021 on schools in urgent need of investment.

This time around the focus will shift away from funding complete rebuilds to upgrades and expansions.

Each school will be free to use contractors on the Education Funding Agency’s framework or tender the work locally.

Minister for Schools Davids Laws has today formally called for schools to submit proposals before the final 21 July deadline.

Schools will hear by the end of the year whether they have been successful in attracting funding based on an assessment of those in greatest need.

Laws said: “The original Priority School Building Programme worked on the basis of the condition of the whole school site.

“We will now refine this to look at targeting individual school buildings, as well as whole school rebuilds where this is appropriate, so that the department can focus much more tightly on addressing specific issues in the estate.

“This is only possible thanks to the data coming out of our detailed condition survey.”

He added: “That survey will be complete by the summer and will give us a detailed pattern of need which will be a useful tool for targeting the available resources most effectively.”