Ofsted shake-up could lower house prices

Telegraph

3 days ago

Ofsted's inspections shake-up could lower house prices around top-performing schools, the watchdog's chief has hinted.
Sir Martyn Oliver said properties come with a premium if they are located near high-achieving schools, especially those rated 'outstanding' under the current Ofsted system.
However, he suggested this was likely to change when one-word Ofsted ratings are replaced with more 'nuanced' report cards from November, which will give schools colour-coded rankings across 10 different inspection areas.
Sir Martyn said the inspections overhaul would prove a headache for property agencies such as Rightmove, which show house-hunters the Ofsted rankings of nearby schools.
'Here's a burning question: what's Rightmove going to do?', Ofsted's chief inspector told an audience at the Festival of Education at Wellington College on Thursday. 'It's a serious point. Interestingly, Ofsted is probably one of the best known regulators and inspectors in the world, let alone in this country.'
The former headteacher, who built a career turning around failing schools, added: 'All those years of living at least 20 minutes away from my school, sometimes 40 minutes – I ended up sponsoring two special measures schools right where I live.
'And the house prices shot up. They were both in special measures, both went to 'outstanding', and the house prices went up £15,000 within a week. It does make a difference.'
Value of single-word judgements
In an apparent defence of the former Ofsted ranking system, Sir Martyn said it showed that 'parents obviously put a value' on single-word judgements of schools.
Research published by Yopa, the estate agency, last year showed properties in England close to 'outstanding' schools were priced around £116,000 higher on average than those near schools rated 'inadequate' – the lowest ranking under the single-word system.
Similar research by Knight Frank in 2021 found that properties in catchment areas for 'outstanding' primary schools sold for 10 per cent more on average than those located further away.
Schools will still be allowed to promote their one-word ratings until they are reinspected by Ofsted, which usually happens every three to four years. It is unclear whether estate agents will still be allowed to display schools' ratings on their websites beyond that.
It comes after the school inspections watchdog a faced a backlash over its plans to replace single-word judgements with new colour-coded report cards. Under the new system, it will give schools ratings for each area of practice, ranging from a red 'causing concern' up to a dark green 'exemplary'.
Last year, the Government announced that it was scrapping the one-word system following the death of Ruth Perry, a headteacher who took her own life in 2023 after an Ofsted inspection downgraded her school in Reading from 'outstanding' to 'inadequate'.
Prof Julia Waters, Mrs Perry's sister, has been among critics of the proposed changes, saying in February that they read as if Ofsted has 'fed single-word judgements through an online thesaurus'.
'A fine balance' of complexity needed
Speaking on Thursday, Sir Martyn said he had been forced to strike 'a fine balance between providing so much complexity and so much nuance that schools find it stressful… or not enough nuance and not enough complexity that it does them [teachers] a disservice for the great job that they do'.
But he added that the new system would deprive the best-performing schools of the opportunity to boast about their success.
'We've been doing something for 30-plus years in a single way,' the watchdog chief said. 'If I look at my phone there will be pictures of people standing in front of their schools with balloons with an O, a U, a T – [spelling] 'outstanding' – and local newspapers up and down the country celebrating.
'It happens all of the time, and we're about to take that away and change it to something else that for more than three decades people are used to.'