Lib Dem fight against school funding cuts leads to cross-party letter to minister

At a Full Council meeting in Wood Green last night (20th March), the Lib Dems presented a motion calling on the government to reverse the cut to Haringey schools budget of £5 million a year by 2019–20. They also called on the council to object to the funding cuts and for a letter to be written to the Secretary of State for Education to oppose them.

Following a debate in the council chamber Labour councillors agreed to accept the motion with some amendments. Following the meeting, the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition, Cllr Gail Engert and the Labour Leader of the Council will be writing a joint letter to the Secretary of State for Education to oppose the school funding cuts.

The Liberal Democrats in Government introduced the pupil premium which saw schools in Haringey benefiting with:

• An extra £13 million on top of their usual budgets.
• Each primary and secondary school in the borough received an extra £900 per pupil that had been registered for free school meals.

Cllr Liz Morris, Haringey Lib Dem Spokesperson for Education, comments:

“The Liberal Democrats in Government ensured that local schools received more funding through the pupil premium. Locally Lynne Featherstone and Haringey Lib Dems campaigned for fairer funding for local schools and that campaign led to local schools receiving an extra £5.3million of government funding to tackle deprivation. That extra funding has seen real results with local schools improving substantially.

“That is why the Lib Dems locally and nationally are so determined to stop the Conservative Government cutting school funding.

“It can’t be right that whilst the National Audit Office report estimates that there is £2.5bn overspend by the Conservative Government on land for free schools they are cutting funding for other schools. It is wrong and the Lib Dems will fight it.”

<hr/>