Last year, councils had to provide a total of 2,740,000 secondary school places. However, this figure is expected to rise in the coming years, reaching 3,287,000 by 2024 – an increase of 20 per cent on 2015.
The warning comes as thousands of children found out on Tuesday (March 1) which secondary schools they will be attending this September.
Councils have a legal duty to ensure that every child has a school place, but at the same time government rules mean that all new state schools must be free schools outside of local authority control.
The Local Government Association (LGA) wants the government to give back powers to councils to open new maintained schools or to force academies to expand.
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