Funding uncertainty for £72 million college redevelopment

The future of Hopwood Hall College’s redevelopment plans are uncertain according to a report into the collapse of the Government’s multi-billion-pound college building programme.

The College has stood-down the Project Team for the Middleton campus redevelopment and the new Heywood Skills Centre will not progress beyond a feasibility study until the Learning Skills Council, which is providing funding for the scheme, clarifies the application process.

Saf Arfan, Assistant Director for Corporate Services at the College, said: “Hopwood Hall College is working towards its vision for new further education learning quarter in the heart of Rochdale, a renewed campus at Middleton and new Skills Centre in Heywood.

"The vision, if realised, will bring over £100m of Government investment in to Rochdale, which will transform further education for generations to come.

"The College is currently caught-up in the LSC review and has stood-down its design team for Middleton campus. This will likely defer the project and creates an element of uncertainty, but the College has a robust business case and we’re confident we’ll secure our scheme with the support of Local MPs, stakeholders and the Regional LSC."

A design team for the newlook Rochdale town centre campus is currently working on the newlook development, which will include a new seven storey building. They are hoping to submit an Application in Detail by September.

Plans to relocate the Construction and Engineering Centre from Rochdale Campus to another location in the borough were frozen earlier this year following recommendations made by the LSC. Final approval for the new centre is expected on 22 April.

The plan is to site the new Rochdale campus on the footprint of the existing Construction and Engineering Centre.

The College has incurred costs of around £3 million from inception to the Application in Detail process, of which some will be immediately recovered from the LSC. The remaining sum is potentially at risk, although the LSC has indicated this will be funded.

The scheme is one of 79 further education projects in England halted after Government funding ran out. All projects totalling almost £3 billion were given approval in principle by the LSC, which funds further education.

Former Audit Commission chief Sir Andrew Foster, who was asked by the Government to investigate the delays, found the funding crisis was predictable and probably avoidable.
He laid much of the blame on the LSC and said it failed to keep a tally of the accelerating demand from colleges for funding. He said warnings of problems were raised as early as February, last year. College principals must now wait several months to hear their fate.

Sir Andrew said: “No-one is going to rush to spend fresh funds when this funding has been spent without proper planning.”