COLLEGES across Hampshire lost a massive £428m of Government funding promised for rebuilding projects, the Daily Echo can reveal today.

The money had been earmarked by the Learning and Skills Council for ambitious projects to improve facilities for students, but offers were withdrawn when the body ran out of cash earlier this year.

Figures obtained by Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne show that seven of our colleges had seen their bids approved in principle, only for the rug to suddenly be pulled out from under them.

Many of the colleges had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds developing their rebuilding proposals and preparing bids for cash.

Despite a £200m bail-out from the Government, the LSC could only provide funding for 13 colleges of the 79 it had promised money. None were in Hampshire.

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Mr Huhne believes the debacle has proved a major blow to Hampshire’s wider economy, as well as its education system.

“It is a travesty when the education of the next generation is crucial to new jobs and competition in global markets that the LSC has scuppered funding for excellent local colleges across Hampshire,” he said.

“This funding freeze has a knock-on effect for the local economy too.

“With many construction workers unemployed, it is now more than ever that we should be pressing ahead with new projects, rather than all but consigning them to the scrapheap.

“There is no better time for the taxpayer to get value for money in building capital projects like these that will prove their worth over many years.”

Among the schemes were plans to move Itchen College in Southampton to a new site at the Eastpoint Centre.

Bosses at Barton Peveril had been offered £44m towards their proposals for a project that included a massive sports facility, a new science wing and state-of-the-art education suites, only to be told Government funding had dried up.

Speaking after the college was forced to shelve its plans, in May, principal Jonathan Prest said he was angered at the sudden withdrawal of funding, which came after the college had spent £600,000 on architects, surveyors and other professionals – and bidding for cash.

“It is very disappointing and frustrating that we have spent so much time and money putting together some really exciting plans for the college only to have them frozen like this,” he said.

Totton College principal Mark Bramwell said he was “angry and shocked at the scale of the mismanagement”.

“We were consistently told by the LSC that the money was there and that only large and ambitious plans would be accepted.”