SCHOOLS in York, North and East Yorkshire will share a £15 million Government cash injection given in a desperate bid to prevent another funding crisis.

Education chiefs today gave a cautious welcome to the announcement of the cash, to be released over the next two years.

The money is part of £800 million in "unspent reserves" being used by the Government to boost education authorities in 2004/5 and 2005/6.

The lifeline is worth about £2.5 m illion each per year for City of York Council, North Yorkshire County Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

Patrick Scott, director of Education with City of York Council, said that on the surface it looked like good news and could halve the £2 million deficit the authority was facing - if it was delivered in the way that had been promised.

He said: "It could do a lot to bridge the gap that we have identified for 2004/5 and I would welcome that."

In East Yorkshire, one of the worst-affected areas in the country, the director of lifelong learning, Jon Mager, said it was good news, but not enough.

He said: "Our schools still need money this year and we are disappointed that money was not given for this year. There are 40 schools in East Yorkshire with deficit budget out of 160 and all schools are facing serious budget pressures. We still believe funding for this year is needed."

George Batemen, head of finance with North Yorkshire County Council, said the authority's schools were facing a deficit of £9 million this year which could have increased by £4.8 million.

He said the announcement would ease the problem, but the extent of this was not yet known.

The Department for Education said no cash was available to help cash-strapped schools facing teacher redundancies in the current financial year

A survey of York schools has indicated that more than 90 per cent are in the red, with 51 calling on reserves to balance their books.

More than 20 teaching staff have been made redundant because of the crisis - four solely down to a lack of funding.

North Yorkshire is also facing cash problems.

In a Commons statement, Education Secretary Charles Clarke promised every school would get a minimum per-pupil increase for the next two years to prevent a repeat of the crisis.

Updated: 10:54 Friday, July 18, 2003