The Greater Brighton Metropolitan College will be given almost £1.2 million to spend improving its teaching and learning areas.
The GB Met – formerly City College – received a letter from the government today (Wednesday 19 August) with basic details of the award.
Some of the money is expected to be spent in Brighton where wholesale building work is already under way on a separate project.
The news today came after the Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in June that an initial £200 million of a £1.5 billion budget for capital funding to support the upgrading of the national “further education estate” would be brought forward to the 2020-21 financial year.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency said: “This will support further education colleges to undertake immediate remedial work in this financial year to upgrade the condition of their estate focusing on substandard or deteriorating buildings.”
And for the Brighton Met, the money will be on top of the £21 million being spent building a Centre for Creative and Digital Industries at the main Pelham Street campus.
The college sold the eastern part of the site for housing to fund the new digital centre and received a grant from the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership – the LEP.
The college also has sites in Wilson Avenue, Whitehawk, as well as two in Worthing and one at Shoreham Airport.
The college said: “We received the grant letter and the capital allocation this morning, having been notified of the amount on Monday 17 August.
“In line with the government’s guidance, it will be used before the end of this financial year to undertake remedial work on our buildings.
“This allocation will be split across our five campuses but at this early stage we haven’t decided exactly how the money will be spent.
“We are awaiting further detailed guidance on how this can be spent.
“The redevelopment of the Pelham Street site has been funded through the disposal of land to the east of Pelham Street and with a £5 million LEP grant.
“This new capital allocation will allow us to undertake additional work to further improve the existing tower’s teaching and learning facilities.”
