Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) among schoolchildren is a topic high on local communities’ agendas. Councils expect to spend £14.8 billion on SEND in 2025–26, creating significant budget deficits. To help, central government has proposed an extra £4 billion of support over the next three years. It aims to take SEND spending off local councils’ books altogether, but that won’t happen before 2028–29. Meanwhile, with c.1.7 million SEND pupils in England as of early 2025, around two-thirds of special needs schools are at or over capacity.1  Access to SEND support has, effectively, become a postcode lottery.

In addition to taxpayer funding, the private sector has an important role to play. Many companies have stepped in, building safe SEND environments in as little as 12 to 15 months. Historic Braywick House, which CCLA Investment Management sold in October 2025, is one such private project.

A historically important building…

Braywick House, in Maidenhead, Berkshire, is a Grade II-listed building with 4.5 acres of open space. When CCLA acquired the building in 2014, it already had a storied history. A Stuart-period design, it was constructed for the son of Dr William Paul, Bishop of Oxford, in 1675. After Sir Paul, a string of noblemen, churchmen, sailors and politicians occupied the building.

Since 1959, Braywick House had provided office space for, among others, interior design firm Laura Ashley and the production company of television favourite Michael Parkinson. In the mid-1990s, the previous owners added a modern annex.

…in an important location

In the early 2020s, the office landscape changed dramatically. COVID arrived and the government imposed lockdowns. After those lockdowns, employees worked from their offices less than they used to. Tenant demand fell, the office market became more competitive, and values fell across the office sector.

To deal with this new landscape, we initially proposed to erect a care home on the vacant land next to Braywick House. But that scheme met with resistance by Maidenhead’s planners.

We then identified a national SEND school operator, with whom we signed a conditional agreement. Together, we engaged with the local community and submitted a new planning application.

Our new proposal included a request to change the building’s use as well as listed building consent. Both passed without objection, and we sold the building in 2025.

A success for CCLA and for local stakeholders

Braywick House has been a success in several ways. Firstly, the SEND school operator who acquired the building will create c.120 school places at a time of national shortage. The local community will benefit from this well-planned development, which both protects a listed building and provides a valuable amenity for decades to come.

From our viewpoint as investors, Braywick House had supported our funds’ above-average income yield, compared to all other funds in its benchmark, since 2014. But its sale helpfully reduced our exposure to out-of-town offices, which had been a challenged segment of the property market since COVID. In addition, re-allocating proceeds from this sale increased the fund’s liquidity for its unitholders, mostly church bodies and charities. It also helped us invest and create value in other parts of the portfolio.

A team effort

Creating both investment value and new SEND provision, while preserving a heritage building and garnering the local community’s support, was a team effort. Our in-house team at CCLA consists of experienced Chartered Surveyors, but we couldn’t have made this transaction a success without the help of our partners.

That network of partners included Alex Martin, the specialist property agent who helped us find a SEND school operator with an interest in Maidenhead, healthcare property development specialists Perseus Land, our agents Bray Fox Smith, lawyers DLA Piper, consultants Gillings Planning and Haskoning, architects Harris Irwin, tree consultants SJA Trees and ecologist Sam Watson. Many thanks to all involved.

CCLA Investment Management’s property team is a leading investor in commercial property on behalf of churches, charities and local authority investors.

Since launching our first fund, in 1972, the team now manages c. £1.5 billion of UK commercial property. CCLA’s COIF Property Fund delivered benchmark-beating returns of 6.11% in 2024 and 7.70% in 2025.

We don’t invest for impact, but we do seek to address sustainability at each stage of our investment process – in the properties we select, in our management of those properties and in their refurbishment. For more information, visit our Property page.

1 “What is SEND and how many children get support?”. BBC News, 23 February 2026.