ENFIELD Council is set to take the Government to court over funding cuts due to the transfer of services to new academy schools.

The borough is joining 22 other councils to bid for a judicial review of the way a cut of £148m has been calculated for services they no longer provide to academies – a decision they say is against the Government's rules.

The Department for Education has reduced the money it gives to councils for schools because the increasing number of independent, although state-funded, academy schools.

Because academies receive their funding directly from the Government, no services are provided by their local authority.

The Department for Education has therefore reduced the grant available to councils for support to schools, but councils say that the way this has been calculated means the funding cut far exceeds what they save through not providing services, and did not go through enough consultation.

Councils argue the funding cut was calculated by estimating the amount it will cost individual academies to run those services themselves, rather than by the amount that councils will save by not providing them.

They argue that this breaks the Government's guidelines on the transfer of funding – known as the New Burdens Rules.

Councils face having their funding cut by £413m over the next two years – £148m in 2011/12 and a further £265m in 2012/13 – to pay for the central functions that academy schools provide for themselves.

But the Local Government Association, which represents more than 350 councils in England and Wales, estimates the real cost of providing those services to new academies will be less than £60m over the two years – less than one seventh of the amount the Government is planning to cut from council funding.

The councils submitted their claim last Tuesday and Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has 21 days to respond.

A spokesman for the Government said: “The Department for Education and Department of Communities and Local Government are aware of the proposed judicial review.

“We will respond in due course.”

The move comes after six councils won a separate legal challenge against the Government's scrapping of the Building Schools for the Future programme in February.

Enfield Council confirmed that they were taking part in the bid for a judicial review, but would not comment on the situation at this point.