More than 1,000 more school places in Surrey are needed to meet the expected demand in 2026, new figures show.

It comes as education unions warned the Government must address the need for more spaces "as early as possible" to ensure children do not miss a place in school.

Department for Education figures show 82 new school places are planned to be created across primary and secondary schools in Surrey between May 2024 and September 2026.

However, the department estimates around 1,180 further places are needed to meet the area's forecasted demand for the 2026-27 school year.

It includes an additional 800 primary school and 380 secondary schools places.

Across England, the number of planned primary and secondary school places will need to more than double to meet demand.

An estimated 54,800 school places are needed on top of the already planned 47,000 new places.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said there are significant variations between different parts of the country, individual schools and year groups.

He explained: "Many secondary schools are now facing the kind of pressure on places experienced by primaries a few years ago.

"Even though primary schools in some areas are seeing pupil numbers decline due to factors including falling birth rates and a lack of affordable housing, competition for places in some schools remains high."

He said "more could be done" to ensure there are suitable places, including by protecting school funding and improving teacher recruitment and retention.

He added: "These forecasts also underline the importance of the Government addressing the teacher recruitment and retention crisis facing schools."

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the Government must address the need for more spaces "as early as possible", because of the significant lead-in time for building or expanding schools.

He added: "The last thing we want is to end up with more families facing the heartache of missing out on places in local schools."

Arooj Shah, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said councils have continued to respond to the "ever-increasing" demand by helping to create thousands of new school places.

She said the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is currently in the House of Lords, will help as it places a duty on all schools to work with councils on place planning and admissions and enables councils to open any type of school needed locally.

A DfE spokesperson said parents should be reassured, with over 97% of children accepted to one of their top school choices.

They added: "Through our Plan for Change this Government is determined to make sure every child, wherever they live, can achieve and thrive in school.

"Councils are legally responsible for ensuring there are enough school places for their local communities and should work in collaboration with academy trusts and other local partners to balance the supply and demand of school places, in line with changing demographics.

"Through the landmark Children's Wellbeing and School's Bill, we will require councils and schools to work together on admissions to make sure every family has access to a good local school."