What Does Martyn's Law Mean for Your School Buildings?
What are the most cost-effective ways to reduce carbon emissions in school buildings?In February 2026, the Department for Education (DfE) published new guidance to help schools and colleges in England plan, prioritise, and deliver improvements to their estate. Titled Improve and Renew Your Long-Term Estates Plan, it sets out a structured seven-step process covering building condition, suitability, climate resilience and decarbonisation.
Many school and college leaders will already be aware of the guidance but may be uncertain about what it requires of them in practice. This article provides a clear, plain-English overview of the framework and explains the steps you should take to begin acting on it.
What is the DfE’s long-term estates planning guidance?
The guidance provides a process to help schools and colleges think about their buildings and land in a joined-up way. Rather than addressing individual issues in isolation, such as replacing a boiler here or patching a roof there, it encourages responsible bodies to take a holistic view of their entire estate and plan improvements strategically over the long term.
A central principle of the guidance is that estate improvements should consider buildings, systems, users, and the wider environment together. This approach is designed to help schools avoid unintended consequences, reduce disruption, and maximise value for money from every pound spent.
The DfE is clear that long-term estates planning should be an ongoing process, not a one-off exercise. Plans must be reviewed and updated regularly to remain relevant and evidence based.
Who does the guidance apply to?
The guidance applies to schools and colleges in England. This includes maintained schools, academies, multi-academy trusts (MATs), and sixth-form colleges. The DfE acknowledges that every organisation’s circumstances are different, and that the guidance is intended to be flexible and proportionate, allowing each institution to apply it in line with its own resources and priorities.
It is worth noting that further case studies and supplementary guidance are due to be published in September 2026, which should provide additional practical examples to support implementation.
What are the seven steps in the DfE’s estates planning framework?
The guidance sets out a pathway from understanding the issues affecting your estate to planning and delivering practical improvements. Here is a summary of each step.
Step 1: Establish your estate vision and objectives
Before any surveys or works are commissioned, the DfE recommends beginning with a shared vision for your estate. This vision should describe how your buildings and land will support high-quality education now and in the future. A well-defined vision provides a consistent framework against which all future investment decisions can be tested.
Step 2: Understand and baseline your estate
You should gain a thorough understanding of your current estate before planning what work needs to be done. This means gathering reliable information about your land, buildings and facilities, and considering condition, sufficiency and suitability together.
Step 3: Assess the condition and urgent risks of your estate
This step is critical. The DfE’s own Condition Data Collection 2 (CDC2) programme can provide a useful starting point, but the guidance is explicit that CDC surveys are high-level and non-intrusive. They will not typically identify issues such as internal pipe corrosion, hidden structural defects or failures within mechanical and electrical systems.
Schools and colleges are therefore expected to commission further, more detailed surveys from suitably qualified professionals to confirm the extent, urgency and implications of any issues identified. This is an important point for many institutions to understand: the DfE’s own data collection is a baseline, not a substitute for specialist assessment.
Step 4: Assess the suitability and sufficiency of your estate
This step asks whether your buildings are fit for the education you are trying to deliver. Suitability assessments should consider the curriculum, class sizes, special educational needs requirements, welfare provision and the functionality of internal and external spaces. Current and future pupil numbers should be factored in when assessing sufficiency.
Step 5: Identify opportunities to decarbonise and improve resilience to climate change
The guidance formally embeds decarbonisation and climate resilience within long-term estates planning for the first time. Schools are asked to assess risks such as overheating and flooding, understand their carbon emissions and identify opportunities to reduce them through energy-efficiency improvements or low-carbon heating solutions.
Step 6: Define a strategic approach to renewal and retrofit
Rather than addressing problems reactively, the DfE recommends developing an estate masterplan that brings together all of the interventions identified in the earlier steps. This masterplan should sequence works logically, minimise disruption to learning and co-ordinate interventions that can be delivered simultaneously.
The guidance explicitly recommends engaging qualified technical experts, including surveyors, designers, and contractors, at this stage.
Step 7: Develop a plan of work
The final step translates your estate strategy into a deliverable, phased programme of improvements. Your plan of work should set out what will be done, when and why, and should be treated as a live management tool that is reviewed and updated regularly as conditions, funding and educational needs change.
What are the most important things to understand about the guidance?
For school and college leaders reading the guidance for the first time, there are several important points to take on board.
- The DfE’s own condition surveys are a starting point, not the whole picture. Most schools will need to commission additional specialist surveys before they can fully scope and cost the works required
- Planning should be holistic. The guidance strongly discourages piecemeal approaches. Interventions addressing condition, suitability, resilience, and decarbonisation should be considered together wherever possible
- Professional expertise is not optional for significant works. The guidance explicitly states that moderate to high-budget interventions require engagement with experienced built-environment professionals, including surveyors, structural engineers, mechanical and electrical consultants, and contractors familiar with occupied school sites
- The plan of work is a live document. It is not a one-off exercise. Schools are expected to monitor progress, review priorities and update their plan regularly in response to changing conditions, funding availability and educational needs
How can BTG Eddisons Education help you meet the requirements of the guidance?
The seven-step framework maps directly onto the range of services we provide to schools, academies, MATs, and sixth-form colleges across England.
Our condition surveys go beyond the high-level CDC data to provide the detailed, RICS-certified assessments that the DfE guidance says schools will need before works can be scoped and costed. Our reports are also a prerequisite for funding applications through the Condition Improvement Fund and Urgent Capital Support schemes.
Our estate management planning service can support you through Steps 1 to 4 of the framework, helping you establish a vision for your estate, understand its current condition, and develop a clear, costed plan for the years ahead.
For schools moving into the delivery phase, our building consultancy and project management teams can oversee the works from design through to completion, ensuring quality and compliance throughout.
Our team of over 60 RICS-certified surveyors and consultants has more than 180 years of property experience and a proven track record of supporting educational institutions across England.
Start your long-term estates plan with BTG Eddisons Education
Whether you are at the very beginning of your estates planning journey or need specialist support for a specific step in the DfE framework, we are here to help. Please use the form below to arrange a free consultation with one of our experts today.
You can also explore our case studies to see how we have supported other schools and trusts with their estates.
