The success of economies in the future will be based on the education and skills of the people.
Dunfermline requires a new college equipped for a 21st century economy giving people access to the very best further and higher education opportunities. Nothing less than this is acceptable.
I am asking the Scottish Government to honour the commitment that they made in 2014 to finance the build of a new college in Dunfermline.
The Principle of Fife College has set out very clearly why building and sharing a ‘super campus’ with two high schools is not the best option to achieve the ambition the college has for future learning and development.
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To read the letter from the Principle of Fife College please see below:
Dear Colleagues,
I have been holding back providing you with an update on the proposed new campus at Halbeath in the hope that I would be able to report a positive outcome and thereby give you some certainty on when the new development will be up and running However, with increased speculation in the media about the prospects for the new campus, I feel that, in spite of the continuing uncertainty, it is important now to set out the facts on where we have reached on what is proving to be a long and drawn out process.
In October 2014, the Scottish Government announced that there would be a new college for Fife to replace the existing Halbeath campus to be funded under the NPD (non-profit distributing) investment route. In late 2015, that form of financing for many Scottish Government projects looked likely to be discontinued due to a reinterpretation of accounting rules but the College was asked to continue to work with on the assumption that some such model would be available. Colleagues will also recall that much time was also taken up around that time considering site options.
In January 2017, before I took up post as Principal on 1 March, the Chair and I met with the Scottish Funding Council and it was agreed that Fife College would revise its business case and resubmit it based on the funding being made available through publicly funded capital investment, while also reconfiguring the assumptions in the plan to ensure that it came within the indicative funding for the project that had been announced previously by Government.
In June 2017, after consultation with and input from the SFC and the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT – a public agency that advises Government on capital infrastructure projects) the College submitted a revised business case to the SFC. I presented the business case to the SFC Capital Decision Point Committee in early July 2017 and the SFC subsequently confirmed that they were broadly content with the business case and submitted it to the Scottish Government for a decision on funding.
In August 2017, the SFT and Fife Council invited the College to explore the prospect of using the schools private finance hub capital investment route as a means through which we might secure funding for the new College The College engaged with the SFT, SFC and Fife Council to explore this possible route to funding but after careful consideration concluded that it was not a feasible option for a variety of reasons
In the absence of a decision on funding from the Scottish Government, the College Board Chair wrote to the Deputy First Minister (DFM) on 15 September 2017 seeking an update on when we could expect an announcement on the funding of the new College campus. The DFM replied on 22 September saying that the Scottish Government remained committed to finding a solution but that he was unable to offer any assurances in relation to future investment in the new College campus as any decision on funding would need to await the outcome of the Government’s Spending Review due in December 2017. The DFM also urged the College to continue to explore the private finance schools hub option.
Following further careful consideration of the private finance hub option, including constructive discussions with Fife Council and the Government agencies, I wrote to the Chief Executive of the SFC on 29 November setting out the College’s concerns over the private finance schools hub option. These concerns included:
- Fundamental question mark over whether the procurement route is legally competent, with the potential for it being subject to legal challenge.
- The requirement for complex and costly legal and governance arrangements to be put in place.
- A very real risk of a loss of direct control of its main campus by the College, compromising its ability to deliver its Strategy, with the College’s role subordinated to the Council with the implications that could have for the College’s freedom to operate.
- The potential that investment already made in the existing project will have to be written off.
- Significantly higher overall cost of the private finance investment versus public investment
- Significant delays on a Council led private finance project in preference to a public finance approach which would enable the College to exercise an appropriate degree of control and accountability.
On 12 December 2017, the Chair wrote to the DFM reinforcing the College’s concerns on the hub private finance route and again sought a decision on how and when the College would be funded. On 9 January 2018, the DFM responded to the Chair stating that his officials and SFC officials would be in touch to address the College’s concerns on the private finance hub model.
Some three months later, we have not received a formal response from the SFC/Scottish Government to our concerns.
You may also have picked up in the media some conflicting messages on the value of backlog maintenance that would be required to bring the Halbeath campus up to just a basic standard, if the new build option cannot be pursued.
The College undertook an independent estate survey of all of its campuses in April 2014. That survey put the investment requirement for backlog maintenance at £33million. Given the decision taken several years ago by the Board, with the prospect of the new campus, not to invest in Halbeath beyond care and maintenance, it would be reasonable to assume that the investment now required to bring Halbeath up to standard will have crept up still further. We estimate that the backlog maintenance will now be at least £36million.
Last year, the SFC commissioned a survey of the whole College estate across Scotland. According to the SFC’s own criteria for the survey, reliance should have been placed on the College’s 2014 independent survey. For reasons we cannot explain, the surveyors undertook a survey of the Halbeath campus and arrived at a backlog maintenance investment requirement of £4million. This survey was based on the new campus coming on stream, and therefore the investment requirement was for patching and other essential work to simply keep the building wind and watertight. It is very evident to anyone who has walked around Halbeath that the investment required to bring it up to a basic standard would be closer to £36million than £4million.
Today, the SFC announced its indicative funding allocations for 2018/19. I also received a separate letter from the SFC which confirms that the new College campus will not be funded through traditional public capital grant. No decision has yet been taken on whether and how the new campus will be funded, but the Scottish Government has indicated that the most likely investment route is through the private finance schools hub, despite the College’s fundamental concerns as outlined above. We estimate that, with a fair wind, the new campus is unlikely to be up and running before 2023 using hub funding.
We will continue to press the Scottish Government to address our very legitimate concerns over their preferred funding route. We will also continue to press our case for much needed capital infrastructure investment in our Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy campuses. We can only hope that the Scottish Government recognise the overwhelming business case for a new campus in West Fife. To invest money in short term patching up of the campus would not be good value for money. Public investment in the Fife College campus is required as a matter of urgency. I sincerely hope that the Scottish Government do the right thing and invest in the College for the benefit of our students, staff and the wider Fife economy. I will keep you posted.
Best wishes,
Hugh
Hugh Hall
Principal
Fife College
