Bradford Council has defended its record on education spending against Government claims that local authorities hang on to cash meant for schools.

Director of education Phil Green spoke out as ministers attacked town halls for failing to "passport" Government money to classrooms.

Council chiefs insist the money is passed on in full in Bradford - but, despite this, a funding crisis has engulfed many local primary schools this year and 20 are consulting on redundancies.

Today Mr Green insisted the Council "more than met" its responsibilities.

"Education is still the Council's top priority, and we are all working hard to continue the improvements we have already seen locally," he said.

"We have more than met the DfES requirements for how much funding we pass on to schools, and are also putting an extra £1 million into schools budgets, over and above the amount we need to give."

Government statistics show that Bradford allocated all its Government funding to education plus an extra four cent cent. This compares well with Calderdale (100 per cent) and Kirklees (101 per cent) but is less than Leeds which allocated 106 per cent. The figures also showed that Bradford had held on to £3.5 million of schools cash in a central fund rather than devolving it to individual schools. It was also revealed that a further £800,000 is held in a school contingencies fund and £11.7 million has been set aside to devolve to schools but has not yet been allocated to specific schools.

Bradford along with all LEAs is now being questioned closely on these points by the Government, which is keen to defend itself against accusations that schools are starved of funds.

Mr Green said: "We will be allocating the £3.5 million from the Government to support schools through LEA services such as school transport and staff pensions.

"The £11.7 million mentioned in the Government figures is largely made up of Standards Fund and Excellence in Cities money. The Fund money is managed centrally and spent on behalf of schools while we are still waiting for the Excellence in Cities money from the Government. "

Education Secretary Charles Clarke said: "We are asking LEAs to set out the steps they are intending to take to avoid any needless redundancies of teaching staff because of the funding issue. It is vital that extra investment the Government intends for schools, reaches schools."

Ian Murch, of the Bradford branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said: "Bradford has passported the Government money - that's true. But it hasn't added to it in the way you might have expected. The biggest problem is the Government. This is a fudge to try to hide the fact that it hasn't given LEAs enough money."