Harrogate Lib Dems hit out as local schools face '£14 million cut to spending power'

Based on 2024/25 data from the National Education Union (NEU), the Lib Dems say schools in Harrogate and Knaresborough are set to be hit with a £14 million cut to spending power in 2024/25.

It means that funding per pupil in North Yorkshire will be £188 lower in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24.

There are 340 schools in North Yorkshire, 286 of which will have less spending power in 2024/25 as a result of these funding cuts, they say.

For primary schools in North Yorkshire, that means a £176 reduction in spending power per pupil over the next financial year, and in secondary schools there will be a £207 fall in spending power per pupil.

Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Harrogate & Knaresborough, Tom Gordon, said: "Parents in our community should not have to send their children to schools which have had their funding decimated by a Conservative government that has lost interest in providing high-quality education.

“Investing in education is investing in our future but the government has let school buildings crumble and overseen a severe shortage of teachers.

"Far from preparing the next generation for the future, ministers have abandoned them.”

Harrogate & Knaresborough's Lib Dems are warning that the fall in spending power in local schools will push stretched school budgets to the brink, with a worse educational experience for pupils and worse outcomes.

They say that new data shows that the Government has cut the annual growth in funding in cash terms from 8% in 2023/4 to 3.1% in 2024/5.

The Lib Dems are calling for the Government to review school funding after the IFS has concluded that the purchasing power of school budgets in 2024 will still be about 4% lower than 2010.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), one of the UK's leading independent economics research institutes, reported in December 2023 that total public spending on education in the UK had fallen in real terms since 2010 by eight per cent - around £10 billion.