WORCESTERSHIRE faces a long and tough battle to win extra funding for cash-strapped schools, MPs admitted after meeting a Government Minister.

MPs Mike Foster and Sir Michael Spicer led a cross-party delegation from the county council to meet Local Government Minister Phil Hope at Westminster yesterday.

Mr Hope was shown a "talking heads" video and put under pressure for Worcestershire to be paid the Area Cost Adjustment (ACA) - worth £4m per year to schools alone.

But the minister refused to give any firm promises - and indicated it would take at least two years to secure any ACA funding

"He is aware of our passionate belief we should receive more money, but we have now got to go away and prove our case," said City Labour MP Mr Foster.

West Worcestershire Tory MP Sir Michael said he had confronted the Minister with a letter from Prime Minister Tony Blair's office admitting the data used to calculate ACA was "imperfect".

"It was pointed out to him that the workings of the funding formula greatly distorted the employment of teachers between Worcestershire and neighbouring counties," he said.

Sir Michael added he believed Labour does not give priority to Worcestershire because it does not have many votes here.

Powerful

"The minister said we made a powerful case but without a doubt we are going to have to do quite a bit more work to convince the Government," Adrian Hardman, the county council's resources cabinet member said.

The cash compensates areas where the average salary across the entire public sector is above average - making it more difficult to recruit teachers.

Neighbouring Birmingham, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire already receive the grant.

One way for the county to win the extra cash is to press for the Office of Deputy Prime Minister to change the statistics used to decide who receives ACA.

The ODPM currently uses the New Earnings Survey, which list the wages earned in each area - rather than where the people paid the wages live.