Leicester College is set to receive £0.64 million with a further indicative funding of £1.54 million, as part of the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Deal.

From left, Martin Ward, Chair of Governors at Leicester College with invited guests, Sir Peter Soulsby, Mayor of Leicester, Cllr Nick Rushton, Nicky Morgan MP, Andrew Bacon, LLEP Chairman, Verity Hancock, Principal of Leicester College and Sharon Redrobe, Chief Executive of Twycross Zoo amd LLEP board member

The announcement was made on Monday 7 July 2014 by Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister for Women, at Leicester College’s Abbey Park Campus at 9am.

City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, Cllr Nick Ruston, Leader of Leicestershire County Council, Andrew Bacon, Chair of the LLEP, joined Leicester College Principal Verity Hancock, Chair of Governors, Martin Ward and other senior College staff to hear the announcement.

Leicester College is among ten projects in Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Deal who will benefit from a share of £28.3 million in 2015/16.

The money has been allocated for the expansion of the College’s current Motor Vehicle Engineering, with a new purpose-built Engineering Skills Centre at the Abbey Park Campus and also for the refurbishment of the Construction facility at Freemen’s Park Campus.

With the creation of the new Engineering Centre, over 100 additional learners will be able to enrol on courses in 2015/16; with this increasing annually three years.

CNC replacement will offer enhanced skills to 180 learners and the new Construction facility will engage an additional 63 learners and enable cross-skilling.

All 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPS) across the UK were asked to bid for a share of the fund, by developing plans outlining how and on what they would spend the money.

The Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership submitted its bid in March this year and after a period of negotiation, the Government made the announcement today.

Verity Hancock, Principal of Leicester College, said: “We are very pleased to be in receipt of funds from the LLEP for the development of our new Engineering Skills Centre. This supports the local economic need for employers and the social and educational needs of the local population.

“This is an exciting partnership with the LLEP and continued investment in the City and County’s economies by organisations such as the LLEP guarantees a strong future for our region.”

Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP said: “I am pleased that so many important projects in Leicestershire will receive funding from the Local Growth Fund.

“This fund is part of the government’s long term economic plan to create jobs, incentivise investment and empower local communities to spend their money in what they know to be the most effective way.”

Andrew Bacon, Chair of the LLEP said “This is absolutely fantastic news for Leicester and Leicestershire. We understand that the Growth Fund was oversubscribed by three times in 2015/16, so we are really pleased to receive nearly £24million.”

“Our growth deal bid set out our ambitions to create 45,000 new jobs, lever £2.5billion of private investment and increase Gross Value Added by £4billion and we demonstrated how we could achieve this with the help of the local growth fund.

“Through these ten projects, we were able to demonstrate sound investment in infrastructure, business support and employment and skills initiatives along with the potential to unlock opportunities for further development and create a significant amount of jobs over the five year period.”

Sir Peter Soulsby, City Mayor said: “I am delighted with the funding we have secured from the government and look forward to working with partners to redevelop this important area.”