FREE schools could cost taxpayers more than £1.5 billion by 2015 — and will do nothing to end England’s classroom overcrowding crisis, senior MPs warned yesterday. 

Parliament’s public accounts committee warned Education Secretary Michael Gove could smash through the fund for his privatisation vanity project if spending steams ahead at the current rate. 

Department for Education figures revealed that the government has splurged a massive £740 million on free schools since 2010. 

Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge said “escalating” costs, including buying expensive sites in London and south-east England, could see spending double by next year.

She said: “The most recent round of approved free schools had a greater proportion of more expensive types — if this mix of approved free schools continues, there is a risk of costs exceeding available funding.”

And Ms Hodge highlighted how the money is not being spent where it was needed.

“The Department has received no applications to open primary free schools from half of districts with a high or severe forecast need for extra school places,” she explained. 

Mr Gove was ordered by the committee to work with local authorities — who he has cut out of state education — to identify areas of most need and cheaper school sites. 

MPs also demanded Mr Gove makes free schools accountable for their handouts in the wake of spending and governance scandals in three high-profile free schools.

The Tory’s dressing down comes as the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and think tank Compass made the case for more democratic education. 

An ambitious “cradle to grave” national education service is proposed by the groups in an interim report after their joint year-long investigation. 

That would replace the “centralised, competitive, individualised and backward-looking” system championed by Mr Gove, the report stated. 

NUT leader Christine Blower said: “At a time when many of the government’s policies are often to the detriment of children and learning, it is more important than ever that we seek to build consensus on what a progressive education system for all children and learners would look like.”