Steve demands fair funding for Croydon’s schools
Steve Reed MP has met with Education Minister Sam Gyimah to demand fairer funding for schools in Croydon North.
The Tory Government is changing the way schools are funded and there are real fears schools across London could lose out. The Tories have already shown their disregard for fairness by announcing a ‘cuts relief grant’ that only helped richer areas at the expense of poorer areas – Croydon lost a staggering £42 million while leafy Surrey, which is far richer, scooped an extra £23m.
Croydon currently has the biggest shortage of school places in the country, but the Government has failed to tackle this in allocating funding for new school places. Steve asked the Minister to make sure no Croydon school loses out under the new scheme, and to make adequate funding available to provide a place in a good local school for every child.
Speaking after the meeting, Steve Reed MP said:
The Tories have treated Croydon’s children as an afterthought in allocating funding so far. I impressed on the minister that this simply cannot continue. Our children deserve the best start in life, and that means fair funding for our schools instead of being overlooked by Tories who only seem to care about the wealthy shires.
Steven Reed is Labour MP for Croydon North and Shadow Minister for Children and Families. In 2018 his private member’s bill on reducing violent mental health restraint became law. In June 2019 he launched Labour’s civil society strategy outlining radical plans to empower citizens and communities.
Steve chairs the Cooperative Councils Innovation Network, co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for London, was Leader of Lambeth Council 2006-12 where he led the council’s children’s services to become best-rated in the country and pioneered the public-health approach to tackling violent youth crime. He worked in publishing for 16 years and was an elected trade union branch secretary.