Ministers accused of ‘snatching’ millions from cash-strapped schools to spend on failed UTC

MP attacks the government for spending more than £13m on Greater Manchester UTC, after the college was forced to close because of a lack of pupils
6th September 2017, 12:18pm

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Ministers accused of ‘snatching’ millions from cash-strapped schools to spend on failed UTC

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Ministers have been accused of “snatching” more than £13 million from pupils in Oldham to spend on a failed university technical college.

The Greater Manchester UTC, in Oldham, announced in February that it would close after it was unable to recruit enough pupils to be financially viable.

The government had already revealed that the construction costs for the UTC amounted to £9.3 million.

Now a response to parliamentary question tabled by Oldham West and Royton Labour MP Jim McMahon, published today, has revealed that the UTC also had revenue costs of £4.1 million between 2014-15 and 2016-17, including a £1 million “pre/post-opening grant”.

The response said that “information for 2017-18 will be published in due course”.

Basic educational needs ‘cut to the bone’

The UTC has had a troubled history, with its 2014-15 accounts showing that it only attracted 98 students, compared with the 160 predicted, causing the Education Funding Agency to claw back £306,000 of funding.

Last year no pupils gained at least a C in both English and maths, and its Progress 8 score of -2.51 put it in the bottom 10 per cent of schools in the country.

Mr McMahon said: “I am sick of Oldham being the test bed for the next big idea, when at the same time the basic educational needs are being cut to the bone.

“While government handed out around £14 million of taxpayer money to this one school, they also slashed £18 million from other Oldham schools. This means that £480 per pupil would have been snatched away while teachers are stretched and schools battle to cover the bills.”

The Department for Education was contacted for comment.

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