COUNCILS suffering massive cuts have been forced to spend more than £22 million in taxpayers’ cash on academy conversions in the last two years alone, research revealed yesterday.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said local taxpayers have subsidised schools that have become academies to the tune of £22.4m since 2011.

Town hall leaders pointed out that they’re being forced to pay to implement the Tory policy when their budgets have been cut by 40 per cent.

ATL teachers’ union leader Mary Bousted said: “This is yet another example of money being poured into politicians’ pet projects, with much of it lost to children’s education.”

LGA spokesman and Tory councillor David Simmonds said he supported free schools and academies.

But even he said: “It is simply not fair that some struggling schools are burdened with a deficit while others walk away to become academies and leave local taxpayers to foot the bill.

“Nor is it right that consultants and lawyers are making good money handling these conversions.”

The LGA said it costs tens of thousands of pounds to covert each school into an academy, with councils forced to foot the bill for debts and legal fees.

And the association is now calling on central government to pick up the bill for its own policy.

A Department for Education spokesman waved away their protest yesterday, though, saying: “The LGA is wrong.

“Local authorities are only required to cover a school’s deficit costs if it has become a sponsored academy after a prolonged period of underperformance.”