CENTRAL Devon MP Mel Stride has welcomed the move by the Government to give schools across Devon almost £2 million to address their shortfall in funding.

The extra money comes after Devon schools told the Government they needed more money to fund an expected increase in numbers.

Devon schools will receive an additional £1,934,038 to provide additional places needed by the expected increase.

Mr Stride said: 'I very much welcome this additional money.

'This will certainly help many schools in the county and is important because there is still the issue of Devon receiving substantially less per pupil than the majority of local education authority areas.'

Mr Stride has been active in the Fair Funding for Devon Schools campaign, which looks to improve the amount schools receive from the Government per pupil.

Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove said the additional money for Devon would come out of the now scrapped Building Schools for the Future project.

He said: 'Officials have calculated how these savings should be allocated, using data received from local authorities about capacity in their schools and their projected need for school places.

'I believe this is the fairest way of distributing the available funds and to provide extra resources to local authorities that have an immediate and pressing need for additional places.'

The extra funding means that in 2011/2012, £1.3 billion will have been allocated to fund additional school places across the country.