§ Paul HolmesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much extra money his Department has provided to each local education authority to help ameliorate the effects of this year's school funding problems. [123044]
§ Mr. MilibandThe funding of schools is a shared responsibility of central and local Government. In 2003–04, there have been a number of very significant pressures on LEA and school spending. Nationally, the additional resources provided for education more than match those pressures. However, changes to the distribution formula for Education Formula Spending, together with the ending of a substantial body of ring-fenced grants from my Department's Standards Fund, 625W have meant that different LEAs and schools have received a wide range of year-on-year increases in overall support for education.
The department has taken steps through an additional grant of £28 million to ensure that all LEAs have at least a minimum increase of 3.2 per cent. per pupil, in addition to taking account of the effect of the Standards Fund and teachers' pension changes. We have also provided a special grant costing £11 million to 18 London LEAs to help them fund this year's increases in London weighting. The allocations of these grants are shown in the following table. In addition, LEAs and schools will be given the additional flexibility to use their devolved formula capital funding from the Department to support revenue expenditure. The decision to use a school's capital funding in this way will need to be made jointly by the school and its LEA, and should only be taken in those circumstances where failure to do so would lead to excessive instability within that school.
£ million Additional support grant London budget grant Total Barking and Dagenham 1.128 1.031 2.159 Barnet 0.579 0.579 Bedfordshire 0.135 0.135 Bexley 1.492 0.490 1.982 Bournemouth 0.140 0.140 Brighton and Hove 0.960 0.960 Bromley 0.815 0.594 1.409 Camden 1.168 0.698 1.866 Croydon 1.302 0.695 1.997 Dorset 0.318 0.318 East Sussex 0.110 0.110 Enfield 1.147 0.665 1.812 Essex 1.162 1.162 Hammersmith and Fulham 0.886 0.739 1.625 Hampshire 0.278 0.278 Haringey 1.330 1.292 2.622 Havering 1.089 0.475 1.564 Hertfordshire 1.000 1.000 Isle of Wight 0.110 0.110 Kensington and Chelsea 0.288 0.491 0.779 Knowsley 0.736 0.736 Lambeth 1.282 0.391 1.673 Leicestershire 0.835 0.835 Medway 1.295 1.295 Norfolk 1.595 1.595 North East Lincolnshire 0.033 0.033 Plymouth 0.831 0.831 Portsmouth 0.891 0.891 Redbridge 0.903 0.017 0.920 Richmond upon Thames 0.152 0.261 0.413 Slough 0.376 0.376 Southampton 1.016 1.016 Southend-on-Sea 0.358 0.358 Suffolk 0.108 0.108 Sutton 0.503 0.378 0.881 Thurrock 0.308 0.308 Waltham Forest 2.140 0.534 2.674 Wandsworth 1.141 1.141 Westminster 0.818 0.818