Education is ranked by Britons as the country’s second most urgent priority for extra public spending, according to a major annual survey.
Twenty-six per cent of the public want to see more government spending on the country’s schools, colleges and universities, reported the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), which has run this survey since 1983.
Only spending on health was regarded as being more important, attracting 60 per cent support. In third, spending on housing was backed by 7 per cent of the public.
The report’s authors say the key findings this year are that older people are more supportive of tax and spend than the young, and that health and education sits on top of the list of priorities for extra public spending.
Roger Harding, NatCen’s head of public attitudes, said: “Since 2010, the proportion of people who want more tax and spend has nearly doubled and shows the country is clearly tiring of austerity.
“The question for the government is whether their recent spending announcements have done enough to meet public demand for more public investment, including now from a majority of their own voters.
“The question for Labour is whether they can win over the many older people who support more spending, but currently do not support the party.”
British social attitudes
The survey found all age groups cited health as the main priority for increased spending, but a generational dimension is reflected here with 18- to 34-year-olds being more likely to favour increased spending on education (37%) compared with those aged 35-54 (26%) and people aged 55 and older (18%).
The 2017 British Social Attitudes survey consisted of 3,988 interviews with a representative, random sample of adults in Britain between July and October last year.
However, earlier this week, the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies said school spending was likely to suffer real-terms cuts this year and next, despite Department for Education pledges to protect funding.
The thinktank launched its first annual report on education spending in England, which reiterated its conclusion that schools’ real-terms per-pupil spending fell by 8 per cent between 2009-10 and 2017-18.
Last year, the then education secretary, Justine Greening, announced an extra £1.3 billion for schools across 2018-19 and 2019-20 in the wake of last year’s general election, which she said would maintain real-terms per pupil funding.
However, the IFS warned this week about the impact of school costs, which it said were rising faster than general inflation.
Funding squeeze
Last month, in an exclusive interview with Tes, Damian Hinds offered schools no hope that they would see their funding rise in the years to come.
The education secretary was questioned about a funding squeeze that had resulted in schools making teachers redundant and cutting courses.
Instead of holding out hope that spending on schools might rise with the government’s upcoming comprehensive spending review, he highlighted a new Department for Education initiative to help schools save money.
When asked when the era of financial pressures on schools in England would come to an end, Mr Hinds said: “Compared to other countries, we don’t spend a great deal less than they do on education. In fact, with many comparisons we spend more, and, of course, compared to 20 years ago we spend considerably more per pupil in schools than we used to.”
