The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is calling on the next UK government to commit more funding to the building of new schools.

Presently, up to 80 per cent of all schools in Britain are "operating beyond their life cycle", the institute outlined in a new report.

Entitled, Building Better Britain: A Vision for the Next Government, RIBA revealed that by September, the nation will be short of one quarter of a million spaces in its schools.

Contributing to this has been years of underinvestment and changes to building, rebuilding and refurbishing programmes, it stated, resulting in "crumbling schools which fail those trying to learn and teach in them".

"The next UK government should empower our cities, towns and villages to prosper and provide the homes, education, services and jobs that are vital for the nation," commented RIBA president Stephen Hodder.

"It needs to look at architecture and the built environment as part of the solution. Reform of the green belt, building more new homes, tackling the failed current school building programme and empowering English cities to compete on the global stage, must be priorities."

RIBA said that the government's standardised school designs are 15 per cent smaller than those built under their previous programme Building Schools for the Future.

These buildings have smaller canteens, narrower corridors and smaller assembly halls, which the institute says has a negative impact on the school environment. Overcrowding "exacerbates" bullying and harassment, RIBA noted in its report.

The Department for Education (DfE) responded to the study by saying that government will have spent close to £18 million on school buildings over its term in parliament.

"We are giving councils £5 billion to spend on new school places over this parliament - double the amount allocated by the previous government over an equivalent period," a spokesperson for the DfE said.

"In addition we have also confirmed a further £2 billion for basic need up to 2017."