Around £330 million has been allocated for college restructuring so far, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has revealed.

By the time the application window closed at the end of September, £226 million of the funding to date had been spent.

The final figure is expected to increase, however. A statement from the ESFA published today reveals that 76 applications have been received. The latest figure includes 30 applications from sixth-form colleges looking to convert to academy status; the other 46 are to fund college restructuring, including mergers.

Of these applications, 18 have been submitted since March. In April, the ESFA said “over £300 million” had been allocated at that point, and “over £150 million spent”. The last figures reveal that, between March and the end of September, around £30 million was allocated and £76 million spent.

‘Get a move on’

The total pot available for restructuring from the Treasury was worth around £700 million. In August, Tes reported that between £200 and £300 million was expected to go unspent. Skills minister Anne Milton, FE commissioner Richard Atkins and the Association of Colleges all urged providers to “get a move on” and make use of the funding.

To date, 23 applications have been approved, and “up to 21 have been approved to receive compensatory VAT funding if the liability arises and funding has been provided for transition grants”.

Former skills minister Nick Boles said in 2016 that once the money had been spent, no more emergency funding would be made available.