David Willetts

Responding to John Denham’s claim that the construction industry is benefiting during the recession from rebuilding Further Education colleges, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, David Willetts, said:

“This is a sick joke. While ministers boast about the impact new buildings can have on Further Education, colleges all over the country have had their building projects suspended. Just last week, 144 colleges were told they have to put their plans on ice, while just eight colleges got the go-ahead.

“It is dishonest for ministers to claim the building industry is benefiting on the basis of a report that was completed before the capital freeze began. In the last few days, I have been contacted by many colleges who tell me they are standing their builders down because the Government is not bringing forward capital spending as the Prime Minister promised.”

ENDS

Notes for Editors

1. The Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills issued a press release on 13th March headed ‘College Building Programme Has Created 10,000 Jobs’. This referred to new research published by the Learning and Skills Council that was conducted in July and August 2008, submitted to the Learning and Skills Council in December and which covered the period up to 2006/07 (DIUS, Press Release, 13 March 2009).

2. According to Learning and Skills Council Minutes obtained by the Conservatives under a Freedom of Information request, the Learning and Skills Council decided on 17 December 2008 that ‘No new capital applications at any level would be decided until March 2009′ (LSC, Minutes of National Council Meeting, 17 December 2009, released to the Conservative Party under the Freedom of Information Act). In March 2009, a written ministerial statement said that only eight college rebuilding programmes would go ahead, while 79 plans at the ‘approval in principle’ stage and 65 plans at an earlier stage would not go ahead until a review had occurred (Hansard, 4 March 2009 : col.56WS).

3. When questioned by David Willetts MP in the House of Commons on 12th March 2009, John Denham admitted the Government had known about the problems since at least November 2008 (Hansard, 12 March 2009 : col.428) . The review was not announced until 27 January 2009.

4. Comments received by David Willetts MP in recent days include:

• ‘we are not simply talking about the loss of additional capacity, but we could be talking about the loss of the entire operation as far as skills training is concerned’
• ‘building work has had to be suspended … which will have a particularly adverse impact on the delivery of the new diplomas and on apprenticeships … the building contractor is now in difficulty because of the loss of cashflow’
• ‘many [building] firms have staffed up accordingly, invested hundreds of thousands of pounds, and are now being stood down by their college clients.’

5. The Government claims to be bringing capital spending forward. In January, Gordon Brown said that ‘an economic slowdown must not be an excuse to slow down the pace of investment and reform to strengthen our country for the future. … [W]e have…taken action involving some tough decisions that will also benefit every region and nation of the UK to bring forward our capital spending programmes’ (10 Downing Street, Press Release, 5 January 2009).