黑洞社区

Delayed college schemes could be bundled together with 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future projects to get them off the ground, a government spending watchdog has suggested.

A report by the Public Accounts Committee into the further education college building programme said that 鈥渦ncertainty about the future of the programme must be resolved as soon as possible鈥�. Edward Leigh, the PAC chair, also branded the Learning and Skills Council鈥檚 management of the programme 鈥渞eckless鈥�.

The report, published today, said: 鈥淭here may be scope to repackage some projects in future, for example by bundling them together with other colleges or with schools being redeveloped as part of the 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future programme.鈥�

The comments will increase the pressure on a future government to put the troubled college building programme under the control of BSF delivery body Partnerships for Schools.

The programme ground to a halt in March when 144 college schemes were put on hold after the LSC over-committed its budget by more than 150%. Since then, just 13 colleges have been given the go-ahead to work up their proposals, leaving the rest in limbo.

One senior schools source said: 鈥淚t would be bonkers for the scheme not to be combined with BSF at some stage.鈥�

Edward Leigh said: 鈥淭he Learning and Skills Council has been guilty of a very serious failure in its management of the programme to refurbish and rebuild further education college buildings around the country. The council behaved recklessly by approving too many projects and allowing colleges鈥� expectations of financial support to outstrip what it could afford by nearly 拢2.7bn. Some colleges are heavily committed to projects on which they have incurred costs. Some straight talking is needed from the council so that colleges in this position are aware of the difficult decisions they will have to take.鈥�

Leigh added that the now-dissolved Department for Universities and Skills, which was overseeing the programme, had been at fault for not spotting that the programme had run into trouble. He said: 鈥淏y early 2008, the council was no longer controlling the flow of projects which were becoming unaffordable. The department鈥檚 oversight of the council was remiss for it failed to recognize that this was going on.鈥�