Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department allocated from the public purse for the (a) London Schools Challenge and (b) Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy.

The original London Challenge included a number of funding streams in addition to “in kind” contributions. As a result, there is no single figure for the overall budget allocation.

The independent evaluation of the City Challenge, which grew out of the London Challenge, stated that the total funding for London was £80 million[1].

More recently, in the March 2016 budget, the Government committed to investing £20 million a year of new funding for the Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy[2].

The Department will continue to work with schools across all parts of the country to ensure all children receive a high quality education.

[1] Evaluation of City Challenge Programme - Page 3

[2] Budget 2016 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2016-documents/budget-2016