Huppert Welcomes Extra £12.5M For County’s Schools

Cllr Peter Downes

An extra £12.5 million of government funding for Cambridgeshire schools has been welcomed by Cambridge MP Julian Huppert.

The money is designed to relieve the pressure on school places and comes after Julian joined MPs from across the county to campaign for extra funding, raising the issue in the House of Commons.

He received a promise from Education Minister, Michael Gove to review the county’s grant funding and the latest investment is part of an additional £600 million for schools across England this year. It comes on top of the £800 million already announced for 2012-13 to address the shortage in pupil places.

Julian said “This extra money is good news and will so some way to addressing the massive shortfall in funding for schools across Cambridge and the county as a whole.

“I am pleased that we are putting money into schools; they have been neglected by previous governments for far too long. Educating our children must be one of our top priorities but we cannot give them the schooling they need and deserve without investment.

“Our schools have been near the bottom of the pile compared to other local authorities across the country and while this payment helps with school buildings, we are still millions of pounds short of the national average for what we can spend on our pupils. There is no room for complacency here.”

Liberal Democrat Peter Downes, Cambridgeshire County Council's Shadow Cabinet Member for Education said: "I am pleased that Cambridgeshire's plight is finally being recognised by the government.

“There is a growing demand for school places across the country and this county in particular, but until now there has never been the money to address this problem. Finally we have a government which is taking this issue seriously and I hope the coalition will continue to build on this and give Cambridgeshire schools the money they need.”