An education chief said a £1 million Government cash injection is not enough for Brighton and Hove's hard-up schools.

David Hawker, children, family and schools director with Brighton and Hove City Council, said the money given to the city council "does not fill the bucket, it just makes a splash in the bottom".

Mr Hawker welcomed the extra £960,000 given to the council last week, which will mean an extra £31 per child per year.

But he said it was not enough to plug the funding shortfall created by the Government shifting help away from the south to Labour heartlands in the Midlands and the North.

He said: "It is inadequate. We are underfunded and we are discussing with the headteachers how to manage a situation where they have less money than in the past."

Councillors were furious when Brighton and Hove was hit by the rules which shift cash from the south to the north.

The council received the smallest possible increase of 3.5 per cent in its annual Government settlement last December, which impacted on schools.

At the same time, money paid to the council through the Education Standards Fund decreased.

It left the council unable to meet the Government target to increase spending per pupil by 3.2 per cent across England and Wales.

So council leaders and MPs lobbied education ministers to make Brighton and Hove a special case and schools minister David Miliband granted the extra cash.

However, there are fears the council will face further funding crises in the coming years.

Mr Hawker said: "We received one of the lowest increases in settlements in the country and we will stay that way because of the shift of funding to the north."

He said the Government had not accepted the argument that the settlement should be based on house prices, which are a lot higher in the south and a good indicator of the need for a better deal.

He said it was one of the main reasons teachers gave for leaving the county.

Education councillor Pat Hawkes added: "Despite today's climate, this has been a problem for the past ten years. People can't afford to live here."