As if it isn’t bad enough that our kids in Haringey are getting £736 less per head than kids in neighbouring boroughs for schooling, this week we found out that our schools are in financial crisis – with questioning from Lib Dem councillors bringing to light figures figures showing that 19 Haringey schools will end the year in debt totalling over £1.5m.
To add insult to injury – the Government is about to try and claw back 5% of any school’s surplus (so any that aren’t in debt will be hammered anyway for prudence). David Laws, Lib Dem Schools Spokesperson, was on to this like ton of bricks. And in usual copycat fashion – D Cameron went on it at Prime Minister’s Questions. I think he just goes through our LibDem releases and borrows everything!
The good news is that I think Brown will get cold feet and retract from this claw back – which he bloody well should – as schools will have already earmarked the funding for use.
Lynne Featherstone 
Unless things have changed this was always the case in local government. Any money saved at the end of the year reverted to the Treasury. Thus the authority never had much incentive either to be efficient or to keep money saved for other projects which their ratepayers needed.