London risks dying from its roots as families leave and schools close, experts warn

SCHOOL closures are creating “ghost areas” across London and destroying communities as so many children are leaving the capital, a headteacher warned today.

- Anna Davis

London risks “dying from its roots” as growing numbers of families with children born in the city cannot afford to stay, Helen Connor said.

She warned that ghost areas, which are populated by workers and students but deserted at weekends, risk spreading out from the centre of the city.

It comes after new research revealed that 8,000 fewer children will need school places in London over the next four years. Schools are already closing because they cannot afford to stay open with so few pupils and experts fear more will be forced to shut.

Ms Connor, executive head of Rhyl Community Primary in Camden, which has merged with another school in a bid to stay afloat, said the situation was “desperate and very sad”.

Despite the merger her school was still struggling to fill its places, and she fears it will only have enough children to make up one of its two reception classes in September. Ms Connor has already ended most after-school clubs and trips in a bid to balance the books, adding: “There is nothing more I can cut.”

She said: “Schools are an absolute hub and centre point for families in the community. You don’t have a community if you don’t have families. What we will end up with is people coming in to London to work and going out to live.

“We have ghost areas of London which are purely places to work. But there are no communities and it’s communities that keep people together.”