Parents should be banned from buying into the best schools, says watchdog

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Chief Schools Adjudicator Philip Hunter said a proportion of middle-class families should be forced to send their children to less popular schools to make way for disadvantaged pupils.

His proposed regulations would anger many parents and have a major impact on house prices across the country.

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First day: But moves are afoot to prevent the middle-classes 'buying up' places in oversubscribed schools

Living close to a good secondary can add more than £20,000 to the value of nearby houses, while a good primary can add more than £40,000.

Dr Hunter claimed the Government policy of parental choice in schools made segregation between children from poor and wealthy families "inevitable", and concentrated children from difficult backgrounds in sink schools, denying them a chance of academic success.

Changes in admission rules such as lotteries could reduce the effects of segregation, Dr Hunter said.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls suggested yesterday that lotteries and banded admissions policies were ways to address the problem of oversubscribed schools.

But he admitted the only real solution was to make every school a good one.

It was also claimed yesterday that ministers who talk of parental choice are misleading parents.

Schools bear the brunt of parents' anger over failure to secure the school they desire for their child, according to the joint paper issued by the Association of School and College Leaders and the Foundation and Aided Schools National Association.

Dr John Dunford, the ASCL general secretary, said: "Because there will always be schools that are seen by parents to be more desirable, there will always be parents who do not get their first choice and feel hard done by the system.

"It does not necessarily mean that the second and third choices are poor schools."

Last year, nearly a fifth of pupils transferring from primaries - around 100,000 children - failed to secure their first-choice secondary school.