TWO local MPs have given their support in the demand for fairer school funding, by signing a petition handed to the Prime Minister last week.

One hundred and eleven Members of Parliament, including MP for West Devon and Torridge Geoffrey Cox and MP for South East Cornwall Sheryll Murray, have signed a letter to David Cameron demanding that he sticks to his pledge to introduce a new national funding formula in the near future.

The letter, which was masterminded by Graham Stuart MP, the vice chair of f40 — a group made up of poorly funded local authorities — calls on the Government to implement a fairer funding formula along the lines of proposals prepared by f40 which, from 2017-18, would see funding geared towards improving educational standards rather than perpetuating an inequitable system.

Under the current system, the ten best funded areas of England will receive an average grant of £6,297 per pupil this year, compared with an average of just £4,208 per pupil in the ten most poorly funded areas.

f40 chairman Ivan Ould said the ‘irrational and unfair’ allocation arrangement had to change and that the group’s financial team had developed proposals and discussed them with experts in the Department for Education, which he said had been ‘extremely productive’.

‘We welcome the Prime Minister’s fulfilment of his promise to baseline the £390-million extra cash given to some of the worst funded local authorities to boost school budgets in 2015-16 and this will now be included in future years’ budgeting. That has always been viewed by f40 members and the Government as merely a down payment to help narrow the funding gap while a new national funding formula was agreed and implemented. We now need a commitment for the start of the introduction of that new formula.’

Vice chair Graham Stuart said: ‘The fact that so many MPs have signed this letter on a cross party basis shows the strength of feeling in favour of school funding reform. This is about bringing an end to an arbitrary and unfair system — it’s not about rural versus urban, it’s about bringing order from chaos. The Government deserves credit for promising to act and now is the time to deliver a rational, needs-based funding settlement. We won’t rest until we have delivered fair funding for English schools.’

Devon County Councillor for Hatherleigh and Chagford and cabinet member for schools James McInnes said: ‘Devon schoolchildren remain some of the worst funded in the country despite the Government’s very welcome injection of extra cash in the current financial year. We’re working with our schools and parents to keep the pressure on the Government to ensure it fulfils its election promise to introduce a fairer funding system.

‘We’ve been closely involved with helping f40 put together the suggested new formula which would mean an extra £200 per pupil in Devon. This could pay for two extra young teachers in a 300-pupil primary school or five more experienced teachers in a 1,000-pupil secondary.

‘Our schools already perform above the national average. Imagine how much more they could do for our children if they could devote more time and attention to them or if they could afford to employ more specialist staff.’