Ed Balls, children’s secretary, has requested an inflation-busting £2.6bn budget increase from the Treasury over three years in an attempt to spare education from the looming public spending axe.
As Whitehall prepares for an era of budget austerity, Mr Balls has asked Alistair Darling to grant the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) an annual real-terms increase of 1.3 per cent until 2014, according to government figures familiar with the request.
