Around 150 further education colleges have today started bidding for a total of £50m in grants to invest in refurbishing their buildings.

Each will get around £225,000 automatically from a £30m fund and then will be asked to bid for a share of a £20m Enhanced Renewal Fund, which could bring their overall funding up to £1m.

All of the colleges have been invited to bid because they are yet to benefit from other capital investment programmes.

Colleges that receive the extra funds will be expected to attract added private finance in order to make sure the final projects are of big enough.

Those bidding for a share of the £20m will be judged on:

• Condition of the college and its facilities
• The benefits to learners
• Adding to regeneration of local communities

Further education, skills and lifelong learning minister John Hayes said colleges across the UK had suffered with a lack of investment in the past year.

“Learners will be the real beneficiaries of this extra funding and we want to make the environment they work in productive and inspiring and to ensure the college facilities meet learning and business needs.”

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