Teachers at cash-strapped schools are being forced to paint their own classrooms – because government chiefs are starving the local authority of cash to maintain buildings.

Warnings have been made that Cumbria’s schools will fall into a state of disrepair unless funding cuts are reversed as figures show the county is receiving less than half of the money it needs for repairs.

Cumbria County Council is set to get about £4.8 million to maintain schools this year; however that is well below the £10m its own estimates suggest is needed annually to fully fix the backlog of maintenance issues.

Chris Brooksbank, secretary for Cumbria at the National Union of Teachers, said the government needed to invest urgently in the area to avoid schools having to get by with patch-up repairs.

He said: “It’s always been a challenge and a battle. A lot of schools subsidise their own maintenance from other funds and they seek out funds from other places. It’s been underfunded for years.

“They used to have a thing where they’d do a big survey of how much work was needed and whatever it was, a three or a five-year time scale, it just gets put back.

“I remember there was a repainting survey once on a 50-year or 100-year scale – that’s why teachers go into our classrooms and paint.”

The school maintenance money Cumbria is receiving this year is £555,996 less than the figure received in 2015/16.

The council estimate comes from a condition survey programme which states an average of £10m is needed per annum over the next 30 years.

The figures were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. A Department for Education spokesman said: “Investing to improve the condition of school buildings and ensure there are sufficient school places is a key part of the government’s plan to secure Britain’s future

“We will invest £23bn in school buildings by 2021. It is the responsibility of those receiving funding – who best understand the needs of their schools – to invest in those projects that meet their priorities and generate the greatest value for schools and their pupils.”

Copeland MP Jamie Reedsaid the maintenance money was just the latest in a long line of funding disappointments for education.

The Labour MP said: “Under the stewardship of the current government, school budgets face real-term cuts for the first time since the mid-1990s, there are teacher shortages, class sizes are increasing and changes to exams and assessments have caused problems in schools.”