City Technology Colleges (Hansard, 22 November 1990)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Baroness Blatch)
My Lords, seven city technology colleges have been opened. Those are located in Birmingham, Teesside. Nottingham, Gateshead, Bradford, Croydon and Dartford. To date, the cost to the Government of establishing those colleges has been £52.8 million, of which £47.1 million is capital. The private sector is committed and will contribute 20 per cent. of those costs.

§ Lord Dormand of Easington
My Lords, can the Minister say why the original objective to establish 20 CTCs within two years, with the cost being met wholly or largely by the private sector, has not been achieved?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, seven colleges have already been established and seven more are in the process of being established and will be opened by 1992. A fifteenth college is in the early stages of being considered in Bristol. Therefore the Government have not only secured substantial sums from the private sector but they have also gone a long way towards achieving their target of 20 CTCs.

§ Lord Dormand of Easington
My Lords, will the noble Baroness kindly answer my question?

§ Baroness Blatch
M y Lords, I gave all the information which was required for that question.

§ Lord Beloff
My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that these constant attacks from the Opposition Benches on the city technology colleges show up the hollowness of the Labour Party's claim to care about the relationship between education and our industrial performance?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right; indeed, only yesterday we had such a debate. The policy of noble Lords opposite would mean more spending, more bureaucracy and no choice. They would abolish CTCs. We hope that CTCs are here to stay. Moreover, where they have been established they have an excellent reputation, are popular with both parents and pupils and are oversubscribed.

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, contrary to what the noble Lord, Lord Beloff, said, can the Minister confirm that nearly 200 major companies were 772 approached and asked to support the city technology colleges and that they all rejected the request for support?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, the noble Baroness is characteristically negative on the issue. I should prefer, as would the Government, to concentrate upon how positive industry and commerce have been in setting up these centres of excellence.

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, will the noble Baroness kindly answer my question?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I have given the figures representing how much industry and commerce are committed to supply towards the capital cost of setting up these colleges. I believe that this shows a very good record thus far.

§ Lord Tordoff
My Lords, will the Minister give an answer to the noble Baroness's question?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, negotiating to make contributions towards the setting up of CTCs is a voluntary activity both on the part of industry and commerce and on the part of government in accepting and establishing the arrangements. I have given all the figures as regards the contribution of the private sector. The private sector is still showing an interest. As I said, seven other CTCs are in the process of being established and a fifteenth looks as though it may get off the starting block but is at present in the early stages of being established.

§ Lord Dormand of Easington
My Lords, in view of the great cost involved in the setting up of CTCs, will the Government consider giving an amount of money equal to that which has been spent on established CTCs to the local education authorities in those areas so that they can meet the great cost of the necessary repairs to their schools? Perhaps I may give one example. In the North East, where the Gateshead CTC has been established, the amount of money spent is almost £6 million. That is more than the whole of the money available to the Newcastle and Gateshead authorities for the repair and maintenance of their schools.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, the money which has been spent on establishing CTCs is over and above, and not part of, the moneys which will go into the mainstream education system. Noble Lords opposite disagree with the establishment of CTCs. They have taken many opportunities to criticise them and have done all they can to establish a proposition that they should be abolished. The noble Lord can travel down that road, but we believe that extending choice is a very good thing not just for education but also for the young people who will benefit from a good, sound technical education.

§ Baroness David
My Lords, does the Minister realise that many children are not in the CTC schools and that a great deal of money needs to be spent on the schools attended by the majority of pupils? Does she also realise that those schools are crumbling? It seems most unfair to many people that an excessive amount of money is being spent on CTCs in proportion to the amount spent on the maintenance of maintained schools.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, at the risk of repeating some of yesterday's debate, I believe I made it clear that the Government are doing a great deal towards increasing technical and vocational education in our schools. We believe that the excellent example being set by CTCs will do more than anything else to improve technical education in schools. My belief is that we shall see a growth in technical education which will have a great status equal to academic achievement in our schools.