Birmingham schools have been promised bumper budget increases over the next two years.

Colleges in other areas, such as Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall, will also receive a major funding boost.

But areas where funding is already lower, such as Solihull and Worcestershire, will fall further behind.

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Education Minister Jacqui Smith, MP for Redditch, said: "We have acted to ensure that every school, whatever its location, will benefit from the substantial increases in funding the Government has committed to education."

In Birmingham, funding per pupil will increase from £3,751 this year to £4,270 in 2007, an increase of £519 over two years for every pupil in the city's schools.

This means school budgets will shoot up by 14 per cent, far above inflation. The total annual funding for the city's schools will be more than £720 million.

Funding in Sandwell will increase from £3,517 to £4,035 per pupil, up £518 over two years.

In Dudley funding per pupil rises from £3,329 to £3,786, up £457, and in Walsall it rises from £3,337 to £3,843, up by £506.

Funding in Solihull will increase from £3,142 per pupil to £3,556, up £414.

And in Worcestershire, including Redditch and Bromsgrove, funding per pupil will increase from £3,127 to £3,553, an increase of £426.

MP Caroline Spelman (Con Meriden) said: "Funding for schools in my constituency, in the Solihull borough, has increased.

"But other areas received a bigger increase - even though their budgets were already higher.

"It means the gap has grown, and once again our schools are expected to do more with less money.

"Given that we are shoulder to shoulder with Birmingham it is inexplicable that there should be such a huge difference in funding between schools serving a similar community."

Ms Smith said: "This settlement demonstrates the continuing high priority the Government gives to schools.

"Between 1997-98 and 2007-08, the end of the current spending review period, total revenue funding per pupil will have increased nationally by over £1,400 in real terms, an increase of nearly 50 per cent."

She said funding settlement would help schools and councils deliver reforms planned by the Government, including offering more workplace training for pupils aged 14 to 16, and more childcare for children from 33 to 38 weeks.

The Treasury was now allocating budgets for two years at a time, instead of just one, to make it easier for headteachers to plan ahead, she said.