Birmingham schools to pay back excess cash
MORE than 200 Birmingham schools could be forced to hand back £30 million in funding after failing to spend money they received from taxpayers.
The Government has named schools which ended the year with massive budget surpluses, and ordered the city council to make them spend it. Failing that, the authority has been told to take the money away and give it to neighbouring schools which will make good use of it.
And the Government has warned that if the cash has not been spent in three years, it will intervene.
Birmingham schools which significantly underspent included George Dixon International School and Sixth Form College in Edgbaston, which failed to spend 25 per cent if its annual income, leaving it with a surplus of £1.65 million.
Handsworth Grammar School underspent by £1.4 million, 28 per cent of its income, while Harborne Hill School, in Edgbaston, underspent by £1.2 million, 31 per cent of its income.
Thornton Junior School, in Ward End, failed to spend more than half its budget and ended the year with a surplus of £940,000.
