Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) and other West Sussex MPs have welcomed the announcement this week of a consultation on new national Fair Funding Formula for Schools. The announcement is the culmination of months of lobbying by local MPs, including direct meetings with the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. For historic reasons, West Sussex is one of the worst funded areas in the country – receiving some £80m less over the last five years than other counties – a situation local MPs have been determined to change.
Tim said:
“This was a Conservative Manifesto commitment which we have pushed hard to see honoured rapidly. I was delighted by the announcement which should result in Fairer Funding for our schools.
“However there is still a huge amount of work to do to get the Formula right and, as ever, the devil will lie in the details. We will need to see the full detail of the consolation, but in principle this represents a huge step forward and is a decision of lasting significance.
“I will be working closely with local Headteachers and look forward to submitting a response to the Consultation.”
Whilst the new funding formula is a step in right direction, MPs are concerned that their calls for interim payments to bridge the gap between the current level of funding and the introduction of the new formula from 2017 are not being answered. The urgency of the introduction of the new formula for West Sussex will be addressed in the Consultation, nevertheless MPs had hoped that more funds could be made available immediately given cost pressures this now seems unlikely.
Tim commented:
“West Sussex has already received a ‘damping’ payment of an extra £1 million a year ahead of the National Funding Formula, but we need to go much further than this to put our schools on an equal footing with those in other countries.
“I will be working hard to ensure that we make the strongest case to improve funding for West Sussex schools as soon as possible.”