Extra Funding For Cambridgeshire Schools

17 July 2014, 10:46 | Updated: 17 July 2014, 10:54

Cambridgeshire schools are to receive an extra £23.2 million in government funding; £2.7 million more than originally expected.

The county is currently the worst funded area in the UK for education.

The funding will increase by £311 per pupil, up to £4,261 per pupil per year.

The 7.9 percent increase has been welcomed by Cambridge MP, Julian Huppert who has been driving the fight for fairer funding for the county's children for more than a decade. 

He said "This is excellent news for every child and every teacher in our schools now and in the future. 

This is not just a one off payment; the funding formula is to be changed so that Cambridgeshire gets a fairer deal year on year. 

Our schools have been short-changed over the last 30 years with our pupils receiving £600 below the English average. 

Until now, no government has done anything about it. 

We have closed more than half the gap between our schools and those across the country. 

Clearly the English average funding will increase so we still have more work to do. 

But we have a commitment to full fair funding which could bring even more. 

I will continue to push to make sure that becomes a reality so that every school in our county gets the money our children deserve.

I thank all those who have campaigned on this issue, including the Cambridgeshire Schools Forum and many, many others' Julian lobbied Ministers on many occasions and led a Westminster debate on the issue as well as raising a petition calling on the government to act as a matter of urgency.