Author Archives: GovWorldMag

More money for Wokingham and West Berkshire schools

I was pleased today that the Secretary of State announced £1300 million more for English schools across 2018-19 and 2019-20. I had been pressing her and the Treasury hard to make more money available in total for schools, as had others.

She went on to explain that “we are able to increase the percentage allocated to pupil led factors and this formula settlement to 2019-20 will provide at least £4,800 per pupil for every secondary school”. Again I with others had pressed for more of the money to be granted as a per pupil payment so that Councils like Wokingham and West Berkshire would benefit fully.

The government is still planning on introducing a fairer funding formula for 2018-19 and beyond. For the first two years the “national funding formula will set indicative budgets for each school” but “local authorities will continue to set a local formula as they do now for determining individual schools budgets in 2018-19 and 2019-20.” The details of the new national formula will be set out in September.

I will follow up with the Secretary of State on the detail of the formula as I am keen to see a decent result for local schools.

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John Redwood MP •

The Conservative government’s handling of the HS2 project has not inspired confidence – Andy McDonald

Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, responding to the awarding of contracts to build the first phase of HS2, said:

“The last Labour government initiated High Speed 2 and we continue to support the project to increase network capacity and deliver economic benefits. 

“Labour will press the Government to ensure that the route causes as little disruption as possible and those affected are appropriately compensated.

“The Conservative government’s handling of the project has not inspired confidence, with independent experts already calculating cost over-runs of the initial section of almost twice the official figures. The Transport Secretary must reassure the public that there will be no repeat of the conflict of interest scandal between HS2 and CH2M. He must also clarify what steps he has taken to assure himself of the suitability of the decision to award contracts to Carillion, in light of the company’s recent difficulties. 

“HS2 must deliver value for money and retain public support, which means ensuring jobs and apprenticeships for the UK workforce and, crucially, securing the best deal for taxpayers by running services under public ownership, not for private profit.“

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Labour •