iMET: Sale of Cambridgeshire college could mean £6.6m loss

The technical college's iMET name stood for innovation, manufacturing and engineering technology

A publicly-funded technical college is to be sold to a private company for a loss of £6.6m.

The iMET in Alconbury, Cambridgeshire, was built in 2018 using a £9m grant from the Local Growth Fund.

Despite the plans being assessed as poor, they were approved by the Greater Cambridgeshire Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership (GCGPLEP).

The Labour Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Nik Johnson, said it was "a ridiculous amount of money to lose".

It was hoped the college would fill the gap in the local skills market in areas such as advanced manufacturing, engineering, construction, IT and digital and life sciences.

It was meant to enrol 4,000 students and 500 apprentices a year, but it closed in 2020.

The reasons stated for its failure were poor transport links from neighbouring Huntingdon, lack of demand in the catchment area, as well as Covid-19.

Before it was built, a Skills Funding Agency assessment said the benefits to learners and the predicted impact on economic growth were poor.

Mayor Nik Johnson said a range of "checks and balances" have been put in place to stop the same thing happening again

Mr Johnson said the funding should not have been granted and it was "a waste of public money".

He said there was "at least now the potential to sell the building to a local company, who plan to expand employing more local people in new high-value jobs".

'No red flags'

The GCGPLEP approved the funding before it was re-established as the Business Board of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority in 2018.

John Bridge, former board member of the GCGPLEP, said: "There were no red flags raised by anybody.

"The issues of concern were dealt with adequately for the grant money to be given to Huntingdonshire Regional College."

The college led the bidding for iMET, but after financial difficulties merged with Cambridge Regional College.

A spokesman for Cambridge Regional College said it "tried to make the inherited project work".

"The centre struggled however for a number of reasons, including its location and the pandemic, which ended any prospect that it would be successful within a reasonable timeframe," he said.

A local business will take over the site after councillors approved its offer at a meeting

A Huntingdon company has offered to buy the site for £3.15m, and the combined authority, which is led by the mayor, expects to recoup about £2.4m after fees and other costs.

The combined authority's Business Board unanimously approved the motion to accept the offer.

Its chairman Austen Adams said: "This is the best we can get really.

"We are keen to move on with it, but we need to understand how we got into this position and made sure we never do again."

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