Funding crisis puts college expansions in doubt
Mar 20 2009 By Jonathan Walker
A funding crisis which threatens expansion plans at 16 West Midlands colleges was condemned as “unacceptable” by the Birmingham MP responsible for further education.
Bournville College’s ambitious plans for a new £84 million campus on the former Rover factory in Longbridge are among those threatened with the axe.
Sion Simon (Lab Erdington) admitted some long-awaited building projects would have to be cancelled after officials gave approval to schemes costing a total of £2.7 billion.
The MP, the minister responsible for further education in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, admitted the Government simply didn’t have enough money to pay for them all.
As a result, expansion plans at 79 colleges across the country, including 16 in the West Midlands, are to be reviewed to see if they are feasible.
They also include Sandwell College’s planned £85 million new campus in West Bromwich and Sutton Coldfield College’s planned £42 million campus in Perry Barr, Birmingham.
Ministers have asked Sir Andrew Foster, a former chief executive of the Audit Commission, to investigate the situation, and funding has been frozen until his report is published.
Mr Simon blamed the problems on the Learning and Skills Council, a government quango which is already set to be abolished next year.
The MP said: “The LSC has given in principle approval to 79 colleges, which would total nearly £3 billion of government money, and its clear that that level of expenditure can’t be funded in the current spending round.”
Criticising the LSC’s performance, he said: “We are quite clear as ministers that that’s not acceptable. We shouldn’t be in that position. This programme has not been managed properly.”
Mr Simon admitted that some colleges were suffering serious financial problems because they had already committed themselves to paying for work which would not now receive Government funding.
He said: “I don’t want the impression to be given that this will be true for all 79 colleges, because it will be nothing like the case.
“Where there are colleges in any difficulty, certainly if they feel they are in any kind of a precarious financial position, they must go immediately to their local LSC and make the situation clear. And we as ministers would expect the LSC to deal urgently with the situation.”
Sir Andrew would complete his report soon, Mr Simon said.
Conservatives claimed colleges could face bankruptcy because they had already paid for building work in the belief that funding had been approved.
Shadow Commons leader Alan Duncan said: “The minister for FE, or should I perhaps say the minister requiring FE, offered no reassurance that the Government would prevent these colleges going bankrupt.”
He called for an “urgent debate” on the future of such institutions, which offered “vital training” to the rising number of people facing unemployment.
Colleges under review include North East Worcestershire College, Hereford Sixth Form College, Fircroft College in Selly Oak, Birmingham, Stourbridge College, Bournville College, North Warwickshire & Hinckley College, Stafford College, Stoke on Trent College, Sandwell College, Sutton Coldfield College, Telford College of Art & Technology, Stratford College, Glasshouse College in Stourbridge, Halesowen College, King Edward VI College Stourbridge and Kidderminster College.
