Nine London boroughs have written a joint letter to central government warning of the damaging effects of planned revisions to the school funding formula.
Newham, Lewisham, Southwark, Camden, Hackney, Haringey, Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, and Hammersmith and Fulham, are lobbying for Whitehall to rethink its new school funding strategy, on the grounds that it will disadvantage cash-strapped inner city schools.
The government’s revised formula will lead to the redistribution of funds from Inner London to the Midlands and to coastal towns. As a result, Newham, Hackney, Haringey and Camden are set to lose up to 1.4 percent of their education budget by 2018-19.
Newham is likely to lose more than £30 million over the next three years, according to predictions from the National Audit Office; Tower Hamlets is expected to lose £28 million.
Shadow Schools minister Mike Kane commented: “No matter how much ministers fudge the figures, school leaders are telling us that their budgets are becoming unsustainable by 2019.”
The nine councils’ joint letter letter recommends that “rather than redistribute money away from some of the poorest pupils in our country, the government should look to replicate London’s success by leveling up funding elsewhere.”
The London councils conclude by asking the government to “ensure that no school in the poorest local authority areas will be made worse off as a result of its reforms,” so that no child’s chance to succeed is inhibited.
