London Academies Enterprise Trust

London Academies Enterprise Trust (LAET) is a Multi-academy Trust (MAT) controlled by the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET)

Since the 1990s schools in London have been improving at a faster rate than schools in the rest of England, and this is called the "London Effect."

In 2010 Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London decided that the Mayor’s office should be involved in school transformation by sponsoring Academies. He therefore formed a group called the Mayor’s Academies Limited (MAL) and decided to work in a partnership with the country’s largest academy chain, (AET), as joint co-sponsors in order to transform London schools. This partnership was formalised in the setting up on 1st April 2010 of a limited company (Company number 07211219) called London Academies Enterprise Trust (LAET)

The Mayor's Academies programme was controversial. Even at the very time that the programme was announced in 2010, concerns were raised by London Assembly leader Len Duvall who said that it was “just a vanity project that sound good for a short while, but long term what's really going to be the impact?". Concerns about the programme proved to be not without foundation, as (AET) went on to become emboiled in financial controversy when it was revealed that Ian Comfort (the CEO) and other directors' businesses were benefiting directly from AET contracts. Then the DfE went on to ban (AET) from expanding and opening more academies, including it on its list of "restricted" Academy chains until it could improve the performance of the schools which it already had. The Education Funding Agency went on to give (AET) a financial Warning Notice for poor financial practices. OFSTED also went on to blast (AET) for low expectations and poor standards The Mayor's Academies programme had originally been intended to have 10 Academies. But following the problems which (AET) found itself with, and the difficulties in improving the LAET schools (which we shall see more on below), the LAET only ever grew to 4 Academies before the Mayor's Office began withdrawing from the programme.

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