Children in Brighton and Hove are being short-changed on their education, according to a new report.

Secondary schools in the city are given £2,771 a year by the Government to spend on each pupil.

That is less than half the £6,000-plus per child spent annually by some inner-city boroughs.

The funding lottery puts the city's education authority 135th out of 145 in a national league published today by the GMB union.

Headteachers are calling for a shake-up of the formula used to calculate how much is spent in each authority area.

Mark Whitby, headteacher at East Brighton College of Media Arts (Comart), said: "There is an element of short-changing going on.

"Brighton and Hove used to get a more appropriate level of funding but two years ago it was cut drastically and headteachers have not had time to adjust.

"In order to grab headlines in places where there wasn't as much funding, the Government cut Brighton's amount - robbing Peter to pay Paul."

The union's research, based on official Audit Commission data, shows the spend per pupil varies from £2,206 in Norfolk to £6,064 in lslington.

The spend is calculated by local authority area depending on a complex series of indicators, such as whether children receive free school meals or speak English as their native tongue.

A Wealth of the Nation report revealed last month that one child in five in Brighton and Hove lives in poverty but the overall level of affluence hides these pockets of deprivation. The blanket amount granted for educating every child in the city is the same.

Private schools spend between £5,000 and £9,000 a year per pupil.

Elizabeth Wylie, assistant director of the city's education authority, said: "We have some wards that fall into the ten per cent of the most deprived in the country but these are balanced by more affluent parts. That's our problem.

"Teachers in the city are very good at making the best use of these limited resources and results are improving.

"We pass on every penny of the grant the Government gives us to our schools."

Tim Barclay, headteacher at Hove Park School, used to work at Islington Green secondary school.

He said: "It's not a surprise to me that inner London boroughs get more favourable grants.

"They're dealing with more severe areas of social deprivation and have to pay more to teachers."

Nicholas Boles, Conservative candidate for Hove, said it was unfair less was spent on pupils in deprived areas of Brighton than similar areas in other parts of the country.

He said: "There are also some parts of the city, such as Moulsecoomb, that should be at least as high as areas in London."

Mr Boles criticised the difference in funding between Brighton and nearby local authorities such as Portsmouth and Southampton.

He said: "Parents here are getting a bit of a raw deal, subsidising Government spending in other parts of the country.

"The extra £400 Portsmouth gets may not sound like a lot but in a class of 30 children that's £12,000. That could get them an extra teaching assistant or an interactive whiteboard and computers.

"We believe there should be a standard amount for children at a certain stage throughout the country."

The GMB prints the league table figures to give parents a chance to compare amounts between areas and allow people to see how their taxes are being spent on their children.