TEACHERS will “never accept” school budget cuts, Britain’s largest education union warned today after the government offered a partially funded 3.5 per cent pay rise for next year.

A new £174,000 cap on school leaders’ salaries in England will also fall short of tackling waste and inequality in the academies system, the National Education Union (NEU) said.

The Department for Education’s offer of 3.5 per cent for 2026/27 and 3 per cent for the following year means school budgets will have to find £460 million while “already at breaking point,” said NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede.

It followed Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis securing a £15 billion uplift in defence spending largely funded by cuts to other departments’ capital budgets due to Labour’s self-imposed public spending rules.

Mr Kebede said: “At a time of rising defence spending, government must answer a simple moral question: why is there always money for conflict, but not enough for childhood?

“If fiscal rules block investment in schools, staff and children’s futures, then those rules must change.”

He said that the £460m school budget cuts are equivalent to 3,900 teachers and 4,400 support staff.

“Ministers cannot claim to want more teachers while overseeing such a drastic reduction in numbers next year,” he added.

“Pressure from the NEU has forced the government beyond its original pay and funding offer.

“But let us be clear: a partially funded settlement still means cuts to education, and the NEU will never accept that.”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson also announced an academy trust executive salary cap today with future pay increases to be limited to the annual awards agreed for teachers and government approval required for advertising pay above £174,000.

Mr Kebede said: “The government’s action on CEO pay is a start, but it is not enough. It will not be retrospective, and the waste and inequality in the academies system must be tackled through a fair, transparent and enforceable shared pay framework.” 

GMB union said that teachers being given more than the 3.3 per cent offered to school support staff by local authorities “is abhorrent and really rubs salt into the wound.”

National officer Stacey Booth added “it will be interesting” to see how many high pay awards the government approves.