§ 22. Mr. LuffTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to bring spending per pupil in Worcestershire closer to the national average; and if he will make a statement. [152571]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisThe Green Paper on the future of local authority funding made it clear that we want to remove the worst of the disparities that affect counties like Worcestershire, by levelling up not down. We will be working on this over the coming months, with the aim of moving towards a new system in 2002–03.
In the meantime, the Government continue to make substantial increases in the overall level of funding throughout the country.