Charles Clarke has moved to free up cash for school budgets in a bid to end the education funding crisis.

The education secretary has announced plans to allow schools to spend up to £600 million earmarked for building repairs on teachers' wages in an attempt to avoid redundancies this summer.

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Gerald Imison, ATL's joint acting general secretary, said: "We welcome the government's statement today which recognises that there is a fundamental problem requiring urgent resolution. Action will need to be taken quickly before teachers and support staff are unnecessarily dismissed.

"With careful monitoring and a degree of realistic flexibility there has to be some optimism that this will provide the necessary short term solution, but it can only be a stopgap.

"Capital investment is crucial to the education service with many schools requiring urgent attention. Whilst diverting money may go some way to solving the current crisis, the immediate cost is that teachers will continue to work in crumbling schools.

"This is the worst message to children about how little the government values the condition of their schools. What sort of incentive is this for children to respect their schools? Next year's funding allocations will have to be increased to pay back the government's raid on much needed reserves for school buildings.

"The successful delivery of the provisions of the national agreement, which the government signed with us, can only occur if it is adequately funded. This requires a system where funds put in centrally are distributed fairly and transparently to schools so that each pupil of equivalent standing is funded equally. What is essential is for there to be a funding floor for individual schools.This year, education funding is in a mess, causing tension and anxiety in schools. This has done nothing to improve the morale of teachers and their confidence in the funding system. ATL welcomes the commitment from the government that it will sit down with us, as a matter of urgency, to seek to ensure that in the future adequate funds will always be available where they are crucially needed - in schools.

"The present crisis has highlighted some basic flaws and the integrity of the whole system has been called into question. A detailed assessment of the fairness of the present arrangements has to be undertaken and we call on government to start a public debate on this now."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

PAT senior professional officer Deborah Simpson told ePolitix.com: "We would welcome greater financial flexibility for head teachers, but not at the expense of school buildings. This must be only a short-term, temporary solution to the so-called 'black-hole' in funding crisis - not a long-term measure.

"It is ridiculous that we have a situation where there is a shortage of teachers and support staff, yet school staff are threatened by redundancy. School staff must be paid and not made redundant, but staff and pupils need safe and secure buildings too.

"Schools, pupils and teachers need to concentrate on education and not be distracted by arguments over who is to blame. The government and local authorities must ensure that schools receive the funding they need so we can see an end to this problem.

"The timing of all this is particularly unfortunate because, in the light of the national workload agreement, we should all be looking to success in the future and not worrying about survival in the present."

Forum Response: Construction Products Association

Allan Wilen, economic director for the Construction Products Association, said: "The association has previously warned that the introduction of a more flexible funding regime for local authorities would tempt many councils to divert funds from much needed maintenance and improvement works. However we did not expect the secretary of state to lead the raid by instructing schools and LEAs to defer such improvements to meet the shortfall in schools budgets for teachers' salaries.

"Today's announcement by Charles Clarke undermines the government's commitment to bring the nation's schools up to the standard demanded for 21st century learning and to tackle the £7 billion repair backlog by delaying much needed investment in new school facilities. Of particular concern is the government's apparent willingness to abandon its long term investment strategy in favour of the stop-go crisis management of the past that contributed to the current poor condition of so many school buildings.

"Postponing maintenance projects will only add to the eventual repair bill as buildings continue to deteriorate. It will also damage confidence among construction product manufacturers and suppliers making them more cautious in investing in the plant and staff training needed to meet the government's stated long term objectives."