CRUMBLING schools across Hampshire are to have a £23.3m facelift.

Faulty boilers, broken paving and unstable roofs will be replaced as part of a maintenance blitz of 120 of the council's 540 primary and secondary schools.

education bosses have allocated £12.6m to update boiler, heating and water systems, replace electrical systems and re-clad worn out buildings.

A further £10.7m of the government cash will be put towards providing better facilities and more suitable education accommodation, through extensions and other modernisation schemes.

Education bosses at Hampshire County Council have received the cash as part of the government's New Deal for Schools funding.

Its share is higher than any other single authority and brings Hampshire's total allocation of New Deal funding to £133m during the last six years.

Leader of Hampshire County Council, Councillor Ken Thornber, said: "The NDS modernisation funding provides the county council with the opportunity to get large volumes of school repair and maintenance projects off the ground.

"Last year we saw over 112 schools benefit from £11.3m of repairs and redecoration. This year around 120 schools are set to see improvements.

"The NDS funding has allowed the county council to move away from a patch-and-mend strategy and more toward planned programmes of major repairs and replacement, helping to reduce recurring maintenance costs."

However, he warned that the condition of schools would continue to deteriorate without significantly more funding.

"The effects of inflation and further deterioration in the buildings is, in financial terms, leading to a standstill position in the overall repairs and maintenance liability associated with the schools estate."

The latest repairs come after the Daily Echo last year revealed that Hampshire's rundown schools had a combined repair bill of £240m.

Last month the county's education bosses approved investment schemes totalling £5.5m at Micheldever Church of England Primary, Curdridge Primary, Hardley School and Sixth Form in Holbury, Wyvern Technology College and Portchester Community School.

The money will be spent on new classrooms, libraries and a sports hall.