Headteachers have welcomed the Government's new simpler cash boost designed to cut red tape for schools, writes Madeleine Pennell.

The Standards fund - the main source of funding for improving standards in England's schools - is being increased by a third to 2.9bn next year.

The new cash comes on top of direct grants to schools which means spending per pupil will have risen by 700 from 1997 to 2004.

In the past schools have had to spend large amounts of time preparing bids for funding.

But under the Government's new system, cash will be given out according to a formula, removing the need for bidding.

The Government will work out how much to give schools based on what it already knows about them - without making them fill out long forms. Instead of 50 ring-fenced grants, funding will be targeted at six areas - including programmes to cut truancy, recruit extra teachers, improve school buildings and raise achievement in numeracy and literacy.

Nick Young, the head of Wheatley Park School and chairman of the Oxfordshire secondary headteachers' association said: "This is very good news. We welcome any increase in funding, particularly when it is targeted directly at schools, cutting out the problems of political interference with the funding coming from the local education authority.

"The continuous bidding took up a lot of our time."