College schemes could be clustered with BSF

The Public Accounts Committee has attacked the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) for its handling of the colleges programme and called for delayed schemes to be bundled with Building Schools for the Future projects.

In the report, the spending watchdog suggests that bundling the projects together might make them more attractive to private financing.

Edward Leigh, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, described the LSC as "reckless" and added: "The future of the programme is now beset with considerable uncertainty which must be dispelled as soon as possible."

The colleges programme ground to a halt earlier this year after the LSC approved projects which required £2.7bn more than it could afford.

In its report the Public Accounts Committee suggests that to bridge this gap private finance needs to be found, but will only be attracted by larger projects.

The report said: “While the Learning and Skills Council requires colleges to consider private finance or public-private partnerships as a means of funding, colleges have rarely chosen them.

“This is because the value, size and scope of projects have not generally been large enough to make them financially attractive as private finance deals. By contrast, the Building Schools for the Future programme, which started in 2005–06, groups schools into packages, making them more amenable to private financing.”