If Gove has won a battle for free schools, why are they so expensive?

It has been described as the most radical overhaul of the school system since the introduction of comprehensives. Ed Balls condemned it as ‘the most profoundly unfair piece of social engineering in this generation’. Yet on Monday night, the 2010 Academies Bill was passed by 317 votes to 225.

Clearly, to be condemned so vehemently by the shadow education secretary is a badge of honour and not something I’d want to take away from Michael Gove. The boy done good. But to any impartial observer the most distinctive thing about the 2010 Academies Act is just how modest it is.

Take Section 12, which stipulates that only charities are allowed to set up academies. The coalition’s education policy is often compared to the educational reforms passed by the Swedish government of 1992-93, but that legislation allowed commercial providers to set up taxpayer-funded, independent schools — what we now refer to as ‘free schools’.