Pressure mounting on Government over 'Newton Rigg College scandal’ as Cumbrian peers vent anger in the House of Lords
“I know a scandal when I see one” - Lord Inglewood pled for action on the Newton Rigg scandal in the House of Lords.
Three Cumbrian peers have vented their county’s anger in the House of Lords regarding the Government’s failure to prevent The Lake District and Cumbria’s only agricultural and land-based college from being closed and ‘asset-stripped’ by its York-based owner Askham Bryan College, after a Government 'policy mistake' left the campus and its historic educational farms (including the National Centre of the Uplands) unprotected when transferred to Askham Bryan's ownership in 2011, despite Ministers being fully aware of the risks at the time.
Lord Inglewood, Chair of the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership and a former student at Newton Rigg, called the situation ‘a real scandal’ on a par with the case of The Kids Company. He pled Government not to ‘emulate Pontius Pilate and stand by wringing its hands’ but to ’take a grip’, and called on the media to go out, investigate and ’tell truth to power’.
"This FE college is part of the nation’s system for delivering education and training, and the Government are the college’s principal regulator and guardian of the public interest. Their prime concern must be the integrity of the system and proper administration of the provision of FE, skills and training to everybody in this country, not just to those in Yorkshire. They should not emulate Pontius Pilate and weakly stand by wringing their hands. Take a grip" said Lord Inglewood.
Lord Inglewood’s speech followed powerful speeches from Lord Campbell-Savours and Lord Clark of Windermere in the House of Lords on Wed 12th May who asked Government to embrace a locally-led plan to rebuild land-based education in Cumbria and protect Newton Rigg’s assets for educational use.
What is the ‘Newton Rigg scandal’?
Cumbrian communities, local businesses, MPs and campaigners have been fighting to save Newton Rigg since Askham Bryan College announced in May 2020 its decision to close and sell the historic campus, land and farms – which it acquired for nothing from the University of Cumbria in 2011; a decision that would leave Cumbria without its own specialist agricultural and land-based educational provision for the first time in over 125 years.
Newton Rigg Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation led by experts in land-based and further education and backed by major Cumbrian employers, was formed to bid for Newton Rigg in a Government-led Strategic Review of options for the site, but the bid was rejected. Newton Rigg Ltd has since laid out an urgent action plan to rebuild land-based education in Cumbria beginning with industry-led training and apprenticeships, while campaigning to protect the college’s historic campus, land and farms for educational use so that a new independent Newton Rigg College can eventually be incorporated at its location in Penrith.
A spokesperson for Newton Rigg ltd said,
“The controversial circumstances that left Newton Rigg’s assets unprotected in 2011 are something we have been looking into for some time, helped by documents anonymously shared with us by a whistleblower. Since July 2007, an Asset Deed had been in place protecting Newton Rigg College and its land and farms for further education use. When the University of Cumbria prepared to sell Newton Rigg to a new bidder in 2010, a Prospectus of sale stated the requirement that a new Asset Deed be created to continue the protection of these historic Cumbrian assets under any new ownership. Not only did the parties involved in the 2011 transfer fail to instigate a new Asset Deed, but a specific and highly unusual Deed of Release document was prepared and executed - by two exempt charities, and two Government agencies - wilfully removing any protection from the assets, in the knowledge that doing so would render this ‘campus’ purely a capital asset, available to be sold off at the whim of the new owner. This was in direct conflict to the terms of the Prospectus prepared for the transfer of Newton Rigg College by the SFA, to which all bidders were expected to adhere, and went against the assurances made to then local MP Rory Stewart, who made all parties aware of the need for an Asset Deed.”
Newton Rigg Ltd have now written formally to Gillian Keegan, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills, after the issue of Newton Rigg was raised at an EFRA Select Committee hearing on 23rd March.
A spokesperson for Newton Rigg Ltd said, “Despite the high profile of the EFRA Committee hearing and the comments made by the Chairman, the Government has failed to respond to the issues raised, has brushed over the devastating impact that the loss of education at Newton Rigg will have in Cumbria and beyond, and has insulted local learners by offering only a handful of agricultural courses that require students to study two days a week in a school classroom and travel outside of Cumbria – the unique landscape they need to learn in – to access any practical learning at a different college 69 miles from Newton Rigg, necessitating a 138 mile round journey.
“The Chair of the EFRA Committee concluded that a policy mistake was made in 2011, placing Newton Rigg’s educational future, and therefore the educational future of Cumbria, at risk. Cumbria is now expected to pay the price. Cumbrian farmers and industry leaders are not fools – we will not let this go. For Cumbria to lose Newton Rigg College, and for our communities and rural economy to suffer long-term as the result of a ‘policy mistake’ is beyond unacceptable”
Backed by local communities and major Cumbrian businesses, Newton Rigg Ltd has also funded extensive legal advice since the Strategic Review began and based on guidance from specialist charity and education solicitors will now write to the Department of Education regarding its potential failings in its role as Principal Regulator of Askham Bryan College as an exempt charity.
Newton Rigg Ltd said, “Numerous experts and specialist charity and educational solicitors believe the proposed sale of Newton Rigg by Askham Bryan may be unlawful in the context of their charitable duties, and that, as the Principal Regulator of colleges as exempt charities, it is the Government who is allowing this to happen. The Government has consistently failed to understand the role and significance of Newton Rigg, not only to Cumbria’s rural economy but to land-based sectors throughout the UK. We share Lord Inglewood’s plea to the Government not to ’stand by weakly wringing its hands’, but to recognise that an opportunity exists to rebuild Newton Rigg as a shining example of levelling up in action.
“To throw away this opportunity to rebuild land-based education at Newton Rigg would be another grave policy mistake; a mistake as severe as that which led to this mess in the first place. It would also show the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda to be nothing more than a gimmick.
"Give Newton Rigg back to Cumbria - we’re ready and waiting to make it work. Let it go, and our whole country will pay the price for generations.”