THE CITY'S MP has welcomed the news that funding for schools across Worcestershire will increase next year.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday (July 20) that all state schools in England will receive two per cent more next year which means each secondary school pupil will receive at least £5,150 - an extra £150 - and each primary school pupil will receive at least £4,000 next year - up from £3,750.

Worcester MP Robin Walker said the news was very welcome.

"I'm waiting for confirmation on the local figures but the floor figure increase for secondary schools and that is significantly above where some secondary schools in Worcester previously were," he said.

"The floor figure this current year was £5,000 and I know a lot of secondary schools saw a significant uplift to reach that £5,000. Going up again should mean another uplift for those schools and that is welcome.

"Of course, traditionally we have been one of the less well-funded areas and this means that when these floors do increase we benefit from that disproportionately.

"That is a good thing, obviously I wished we weren't one of the least well-funded areas and I have argued that we should be increasing from the bottom up and that is now the approach that the government is taking."

The Department for Education said the annual increase will see most council receive rises of at least three per cent per pupil.

The Department for Education said schools would also benefit from the Government's one-off £1 billion Covid-19 "catch up" package to make up for the impact of lost teaching time due to school closures.

Under the scheme a secondary school with 1,000 pupils will receive £80,000 and a 200-pupil primary school will receive £16,000.