AN increase in Worcestershire's education grant announced last week, has been deplored by West Worcestershire MP Sir Michael Spicer.

Although the 6.1 per cent increase - which represents £13.7 million - is just above the national average of six per cent, the MP says it does not go far enough to redress years of underfunding.

"There's a great gap between the amount of money Worcestershire is getting and the amount received by similar councils elsewhere in the country," said Sir Michael. "There was nine per cent for Wiltshire, a very similar county, nine per cent for Warwickshire and 7.8 per cent for Herefordshire.

"I think there is a new formula for working out how much each authority gets, but it does not seem to have made much difference."

Sir Michael was yesterday (Thursday) due to take part in a House of Commons adjournment debate on the grant, called by his Mid-Worcestershire Tory colleague, Peter Luff.

Dyson Perrins head Peter Buchanan said: "I recently heard (schools minister) David Miliband say the new system was 'intellectually defensible' in a way the old one was not. I would like to see a lot more detail about the grant before I could agree on that.

"Schools in London get a much larger settlement, larger than is accounted for by the London weighting in the teachers' salaries. But apart from the salaries, the cost of providing the education is the same as anywhere else. A ream of paper costs the same in London as it does in Malvern."

The Worcestershire Education Forum, composed of headteachers and governors, looked into the possibility of taking legal action, using human rights legislation, to force higher funding, but dropped the idea as impractical.

"However, the fact that we are looking into it was a wake-up call for local politicians. Perhaps we need a new wake-up call," said Mr Buchanan.

County councillor Adrian Hardman has warned the increase will mostly be used up in a teachers' pay rise.