Harsh Government funding cuts to education could damage “remarkable progress”, a council has claimed.

Essex County Council said it is calling on the Government to delay its plans to slash funding, after it was announced that the county will see its education services grant drop from £10.6million a year to £3million from next August.

The grant funds school improvement, education welfare services and national curriculum assessment.

The funding cut came as the Government expected more schools to become academies and the responsibilities of local authorities to be reduced.

In Essex though, two thirds of schools are yet to become academies, while statutory responsibilities look unlikely to change, prompting calls for the timing of the funding reduction to be reconsidered.

There are also concerns that progress made by Essex schools in recent years could be damaged, with the county currently celebrating its best ever educational performance.

According to a recent Ofsted report, 95 per cent of Essex secondary school pupils now attend schools rated as good or outstanding, the highest in the East of England and above the national average of 78 per cent.

Councillor Ray Gooding said: “We are committed to ensuring all pupils in Essex receive the best possible education and are fully supportive of the Government’s aspiration for ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’; however we have serious concerns about the impact and timing of this reduction in funding.”

He added: “We take a very proactive approach to raising educational standards in Essex… we are calling for the Government to think again about the timing of the reduction in funding until more schools have been converted into academies and new improvement models have been fully implemented.”