Philip Dunne today slammed the Government after it was revealed that Shropshire's school children receive the fourth lowest funding per pupil in the country.Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow, today slammed the Government after it was revealed that Shropshire's school children receive the fourth lowest funding per pupil in the country.

Newly published figures show that for 2007-2008, a school in the City of London will receive £7,090 per pupil, yet schools in Shropshire will only receive £3,550 per pupil.

Mr Dunne said: "Government spending on education is allocated on a basis which is very unfair to those in rural areas. There is no reason why pupils from other areas should get so much more than our children in Shropshire.

Shropshire has to bear a number of extra costs caused by its very rural nature with a sparse population. School transport costs are an obvious area where the cost of supplying services in rural areas are not properly recoganised by the Government funding formula.

As chairman of the new all-party group on rural services, I have identified this as one of a series of issues to address as part of this cross-party group's work programme. We shall seek to bring the Government to account over its funding formulae for local authorities that tend to favour urban over rural areas."