Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Marcus Fysh and Nick Gibb

Monday 6th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Marcus Fysh (Yeovil) (Con)]

T3. I welcome the recent proposal to re-weight the schools national funding formula, which goes some way towards redressing the historical injustice of underfunding in rural schools in Somerset. Although some of the schools in my constituency, such as Barwick and Buckland, are set to receive about 20% more in two years’ time, other rural primary schools such as Winsham seem to have been treated very differently. Will my right hon. Friend meet me to review these anomalies?

[The Minister for School Standards (Mr Nick Gibb)]

I would, of course, be delighted to meet my hon. Friend to discuss school funding in Yeovil. Indeed, so efficient are our offices that that meeting is already in the diary for 27 February. I should remind him that in his constituency, school funding rises by some £2.8 million under the new national funding formula, and that 94% of the schools in his constituency will see a rise in funding.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Marcus Fysh and Nick Gibb

Monday 19th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gibb]

We have protected the core schools budget in real terms throughout this Parliament and the last. Moreover, we have grasped the nettle and introduced fair funding, which the Labour party failed to do throughout its time in office. One of the elements of that fair funding is ensuring that there are sufficient funds to tackle disadvantage and lower prior attainment.

[Marcus Fysh (Yeovil) (Con)]

Schools in Somerset have great teachers, but find it hard to recruit. Does my hon. Friend agree that adjusting the funding formula will help rural areas such as mine to attract and retain excellent teachers?

[Mr Gibb]

My hon. Friend is right. Authorities around the country, particularly those in the f40 group, have been underfunded for many years. As I said to the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson), we were the first Government to grasp the nettle and introduce a much fairer system to replace those historic, anachronistic and unfair national funding formulas.