Many schools were left short this year

Of the 148 main education authorities (LEAs) in England, four were proposing not to pass on all of the extra money the government intended for 2004-05.

Having reviewed their reasons, the Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, is planning to use special powers to force Cambridgeshire to do so.

Seventeen LEAs plan to pass on more than they have been asked to - in one case, Staffordshire, almost 30% more.

Explanations

Schools get much of their money from the government via LEAs.

When ministers say they are increasing the funding, they expect LEAs to hand over the full amount of the increase - the process is known as passporting.

Two LEAs, Halton in Cheshire and South Tyneside, while still not passporting in full, have increased the amount following discussions with the Department for Education since the deadline at the end of December.

The department says both have also indicated that they will passport in full in the following year, 2005-06.

Bath and North East Somerset LEA is also not passing on the full amount but the local forum, on which schools are represented, is happy with its plan to give schools more capital funding.

Mistakes

Cambridgeshire was proposing to pass on only 71% of the increase, the department says.

So it has been issued with a notice telling it Mr Clarke intends to use his powers to require it to passport at least 100%. It has 14 days to respond.

Cambridgeshire is just beginning a public consultation on its budget and said it would await the results before replying.

The council leader, Keith Walters, said the government's directive would force an extra 3% council tax increase.

"The government has spent the last few weeks telling local authorities to keep next year's council tax increase to a minimum.

"Our proposed 6% increase does just that. It also meets the government target of a 4% per pupil cash increase.

"School funding in Cambridgeshire would increase from �219m this year to �230.1m next year."

He added: "Of course, at the root of our problem is the �11m government grant due to Cambridgeshire but being withheld to support councils elsewhere."

Many schools nationally were short of money this year and had to cut staff as a result.

Mr Clarke eventually had to admit his department had made mistakes.

In October, he promised a 4% guaranteed minimum funding increase for every school. This assumes their costs will rise by 3.4%.