2025 Academies Benchmarking Report

The academy sector is facing one of its most challenging financial landscapes in recent years. With rising operational costs, static funding levels and increasing pressures on leadership and staffing, trusts are under strain to maintain educational outcomes while navigating growing complexity.

At the same time, structural shifts continue to reshape the sector. Over half of all academies are now part of a MAT with 11 or more schools, and CFO turnover has hit one in five trusts. While some trusts continue to perform strongly, overall financial resilience has weakened, with just 47% reporting a surplus on core GAG funding and 53% seeing a reduction in revenue reserves.

Our 2025 Academies Benchmarking Report, now in its 13th year, provides an in-depth analysis of the financial data from over 1,500 academies across England, including a wide mix of MATs, primary and secondary academies. We’ve once again drawn on data from both UHY clients and some of the largest non-UHY MATs to ensure a broad and representative sample across regions and trust sizes.

This year’s report includes:

• Key benchmarking data across MATs, primary and secondary academies

• Detailed analysis of GAG funding performance, reserves and cash levels

• Trends in staffing, remuneration and related party transactions

• Sector-wide insights into energy costs, severance payments and financial governance

• Comparative figures by MAT size, helping you understand where your trust stands

We’ve also included a helpful benchmarking worksheet at the back of the report, allowing you to compare your trust’s own per-pupil results with national averages across core financial metrics.

Whether you’re a CEO, CFO, business manager or trustee, our report is designed to help you benchmark with confidence, inform strategic decisions, and better understand the shifting dynamics of the academy landscape.