Salaries for Sussex teachers are lagging behind those in parts of northern England - where the cost of living is lower.

The average pay for a teacher in Brighton and Hove was £25,080, the Government announced this week.

This was marginally more than in West Sussex, where the average wage was £25,070, and East Sussex, where teachers pocketed £24,910.

Salary scales are set by the Government and, while teachers in London boroughs receive an extra payment for the higher cost of living in the capital, other areas of the South-East are exempt.

Despite the relatively high cost of living in Sussex, average salaries were below areas such as Bury in Greater Manchester, North and South Tyneside and Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said: "The most likely explanation would be that teachers on average stay in their jobs slightly longer in those areas, which means more of them are at the top of their pay scale.

"It could also be that the average age of teachers in those areas is higher, which would have a similar effect.

"In Brighton and Hove we have an excellent mix of teachers of different ages and we would therefore not expect them to be at either extreme of the statistics for average pay."

Jane Robinson, West Sussex County Council communications manager, said: "We have linked up with Moat Housing to help teachers buy properties in certain parts of West Sussex.

"The teachers do not necessarily have to buy the whole of the property. They can purchase 70 per cent and, as they move up the salary scale, take on the rest of the mortgage.

"This has been running for a few months in the Mid Sussex, Horsham and Crawley areas and we have had a lot of interest.

"We are hoping to extend it to the rest of the county."

A spokeswoman for the National Union of Teachers said teachers' salaries were set by the Government and a lower average pay would imply fewer headteachers or more newly-qualified teachers.

She said salaries for teachers nationwide were too low.

James Slack and Steve Rogers