Colleges face funding pain as Tories plan ‘clawback’

BUSINESS leaders in the North East have hit out at plans to cut funding from colleges whose courses were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The North East England Chamber of Commerce has joined five further education colleges to urge the Government not to claw back funding due to missing delivery targets.

Chamber chief executive James Ramsbotham said: “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, colleges in the North East have faced considerable disruption to their everyday operations throughout this academic year, including the implementation of local restrictions in the autumn and the recent national lockdown.

“The proposed clawback of adult education funding threatens to undermine the progress made by colleges on financial stability.”

The Chamber has written to the Government to set out its concerns. The letter has also been signed by representatives of Gateshead College, Hartlepool College, Derwentside College, New College Durham and Darlington College.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency confirmed it will claw back funds from colleges where they missed targets by more than 10%.

But the Association of Colleges believes most institutions have only been able to hit between 75% and 85% of their targets, leaving colleges facing six-figure losses.

The Department for Education said it acknowledged the situation for colleges was “difficult” but that it believed the 90% threshold was fair.