Education Secretary Justine Greening has announced an extra £1.3bn in funding for schools over the next two years.

Ms Greening said the money, which will come from savings within the Department for Education, would give schools and high-needs programmes "the investment they need to offer a world-class education to every single child".

But shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said the cash was not new and was "nothing more than a sticking plaster".

Addressing MPs in the Commons, Ms Greening said the Government had "recognised" voters' concerns during the election campaign over the "overall level of funding in schools, as well as its distribution".

The Education Secretary also confirmed plans for a national funding formula aimed at cutting historic gaps in spending between different areas.


She said the investment announced on Monday would mean that core funding for schools and high-needs would go up from almost £41bn in 2017/18 to £42.4bn in 2018/19 and £43.5bn in 2019/20.

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"It will mean that the total schools budget will increase by £2.6bn between this year and 2019/20, and per pupil funding will now be maintained in real terms for the remaining two years of the spending review period to 2019/20," Ms Greening said.

She added that this investment would increase the basic amount of funding for every pupil, with up to 3% gain per year per pupil for underfunded schools and a 0.5% increase per pupil for every school.

Ms Greening said it would provide at least £4,800 per pupil for every secondary school.

In terms of where the money will come from, the Education Secretary told MPs that £420m would be found from the main schools capital budget, while £280m could be saved in efficiencies from the free schools programme.

"This will include delivering 30 of those 140 schools through the local authority route, rather than the free schools route," she said.

Ms Greening said the rest of the money would come from reprioritising spending and moving money to the core schools programme.

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Responding to the announcement, Ms Rayner said more needed to be done.

"Per pupil funding will still fall over the course of this Parliament unless further action is taken urgently," she said.

"I will welcome the opportunity to protect budgets for our schools but this statement alone will do nothing of the kind."

Ms Rayner said it was "astounding" that "this is all being funded without a penny of new money", and called on Ms Greening to be "honest" with MPs and reveal who will lose out.

"She said the full funding formula has been delayed again, with local authorities playing a role in setting budgets until 2020," Ms Rayner said.

"Is this because she has finally acknowledged the role local authorities have to play, or has she simply realised to fully implement her plans she would need to pass primary legislation - and her Government is so weak and wobbly they cannot even get new money for schools passed through this House."