Jonathan Djanogly today attacked the Government for failing to support the Huntingdonshire Regional College (HRC) in response to news from the college that it is consulting on the sale of its St. Neots site, in order to pay for urgent repairs to its ageing buildings on its main site in Huntingdon. This is following the College advising Mr. Djanogly of their belief that the government funded Capital Programme will not resume for many years and the news of a 10 percent funding cut for adult training. In June of last year, Mr. Djanogly, Anne Constantine the Principal of HRC and its chair of governors met at Westminster with SÎon Simon MP, the Minister for Further Education, to discuss the government’s decision to withdraw promised capital funding. Having met with Anne Constantine earlier today, Mr Djanogly said: “I am very worried at this failure of government to support HRC. With 20% of our 18 to 24 year olds out of work, if there was one area that government should be spending on it is in retraining opportunities and encouraging skills in young people. This is why I so fully support Conservative proposals to fund 100,000 further education college places under our Youth Action for Work scheme. Yesterday, I discussed this issue with the Shadow Secretary of State, David Willets MP. I have put down a marker that the HRC should be considered for additional places funding. I also discussed with him the problem of reliance on public money for capital projects that has disappeared and the potential for accessing non public borrowing. In the meantime, I remain very concerned with the consultation on closing the St. Neots site of HRC, which I see as an important construction skills learning centre for the town. Given the amount of housebuilding in St. Neots, now and for the foreseeable future, I think that the loss of the site could later be regretted. Huntingdon will also be losing out, because the lost capital investment would have included proposals to move the site of the college, thus opening up the existing site for urgently needed new housing for the town. Finally, I have re-iterated my support for the college’s refurbishment and development – it is an important player in our local community.”