A teachers' strike in Bradford has moved a step closer, despite the Government announcing an improved pay package will come into effect later this year.

A three-year deal will mean increases of 2.45 per cent in September 2008 and 2.3 per cent in each of the following two years, but union representatives say teachers' pay will still fail to match inflation.

Ian Murch, Bradford branch secretary for the NUT, which has around 3,000 members across the district, said: "At the moment the Retail Price Index (RPI) has passed four per cent.

"Over the next three years the likelihood is that will represent a continuing fall in the value of teachers' pay. There is a fair chance we will continue with a campaign of action."

Mr Murch said a questionnaire had been e-mailed to some 500 Bradford NUT members asking if they supported strike action.

Stuart Herdson, co-secretary for the Bradford branch of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said the deal was "better than he had expected", but said the rise would still fail to keep pace with inflation.

Mr Herdson said the ATL would ballot 5,000 members across the country on industrial action.

The Government measures inflation by the consumer price index, which was running at 2.1 per cent in November. Unions prefer the RPI, which includes costs such as rent and mortgages. In November the RPI was running at 4.3 per cent.