With reference to your article on the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funding situation (3 April, page 24), it should also be pointed out that an aspect that contributed greatly to the overspend on many colleges was the LSC’s decision in the summer of 2004 to not approve funding for refurbishing sixties and seventies’ stock.

This is in sharp contrast to the requirement to prove this is not an option in the Building Schools for the Future programme.

In my view this made redundant the skills of contractors and consultants like ourselves, who refurbish buildings with serviceable structural frames. I believe this is the way many colleges will have to go in light of the funding shortfalls, with new build potentially targeted at front-of-house areas or ones too deteriorated to keep.

Mike Allen , partner, Campbell Reith

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