Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much money from the public purse has been spent on capital improvements to further education colleges in each year since 2000.

Since 2001, the following table outlines funding provided to support capital improvements in further education (FE) colleges.[1]

From 2015-16 until 2020-21, £980 million was devolved through the Local Growth Fund to Local Enterprise Partnerships to allocate against local skills and growth projects, including supporting skills capital projects.

The government is committed to upgrading FE colleges over the coming 5 years so they are great places to learn, by investing £1.5 billion to transform the FE college estate. That transformation has begun with an allocation of £200 million this year to FE colleges and designated institutions to tackle immediate remedial condition improvement projects. This adds to the investment already made in Institutes of Technology and T levels capital.

We will invest up to £290 million of capital funding to establish 20 employer-led Institutes of Technology, with the aim of achieving nationwide coverage across all regions. We have so far invested £21.4 million in 2019-20 and £18.9 million in 2020-21.[2]

Since November 2019, £11.1 million has been invested in delivering industry standard facilities in FE colleges to support the roll out of the new T levels qualification. This is supported with an investment of £5.4 million to support the purchase of specialist equipment for T levels.

[1] For 2001-02 to 2009-10 funding was through the Learning and Skills Council for 2010-11 to 2015-16 it was through the Skills Funding Agency.

[2] Funding for IOTs is mainly directed at FE Colleges, as they are delivering the bulk of provision, but some funding goes to Universities.