Further education capital funding
Source: gov.uk (2025-09-12)

An overview of capital funding for post-16 education providers, the type of funding available and what it can be used for.

Overview

Capital funding has been made available to support providers to:
- maintain their estate and address poor condition
- create extra capacity to accommodate increases in 16 to 18-year-old learners
- get specialist equipment
- improve training facilities
Further education (FE) college condition allocation: 2025 to 2026

All FE colleges and designated settings received a share of an additional £302 million in capital funding in 2025 to 2026 through the further education college condition allocation: 2025 to 2026 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-college-condition-allocation-2025-to-2026).

Grant agreement letters were sent in April 2025.

What you can spend it on

This funding should be spent towards improving the condition and preventing deterioration of FE college buildings and grounds, prioritising safety and keeping buildings operational

The funding must be spent before 31 March 2028.

FE capital transformation programme

The FE capital transformation programme (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-capital-transformation-fund) is upgrading FE college estates, with the majority of projects completing by March 2026.

Under this programme:
- all FE colleges received a share of a formulaic allocation of £200 million to support them to carry out condition improvement projects, completed by September 2021
- we worked in partnership with 16 FE colleges to address some of the worst condition sites in the country
- 75 grant-funded projects have been taken forward by colleges
- 143 FE colleges received a share of £286m in April 2023 to tackle remaining poor condition – colleges have until March 2026 to spend the funding
Condition Improvement Fund

The Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/condition-improvement-fund) is an annual bidding round for eligible academies, sixth-form colleges and voluntary-aided schools to apply for capital funding.

The priority for the fund is to address significant condition need, keeping education provider buildings safe and in good working order. This includes funding projects to address:
- health and safety issues
- building compliance
- poor building conditions
Eligibility and budgets are confirmed each year when the new application round opens.

T Levels specialist equipment allocation (SEA)

SEA is available to all eligible T Level providers when they begin delivery of a T Level route for the first time. You should use SEA to help buy industry standard specialist equipment you need to deliver T Levels.

If you are delivering T Level routes for the first time from September 2025, you should have received your SEA allocation.

Funding support for the academic year 2026 to 2027 onwards is still under review and we will set out more detail in due course.

Higher technical education skills injection fund

This fund was for providers preparing to deliver across all 15 occupational routes up to the academic year 2029 to 2030.

Higher technical education skills injection fund 2: information for successful applicants (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-technical-education-skills-injection-fund-2/higher-technical-education-skills-injection-fund-2-guidance-for-applicants) has more information.

Previous allocations

Additional FE capital funding – to be spent by March 2025

Eligible FE colleges and designated settings received an allocation from an additional £53 million of capital funding to improve energy efficiency in 2022 to 2023. This needed to be spent by March 2025. It was part of an additional £500 million of capital funding for schools and further education settings in England.

Sixth-form colleges and other settings that were eligible for devolved formula capital in 2022 to 2023 were included in the additional school capital funding allocations (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding#additional-school-capital-funding-for-the-2022-to-2023-financial-year).

What funding was available
- additional FE capital funding allocations 2022 to 2023 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6389c781e90e071e02222527/Additional_FE_capital_funding_allocations_2022_to_2023.ods) (ODS, 14.2 KB)
- additional FE capital funding allocations 2022 to 2023 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6389c7908fa8f569f830f7d2/Additional_FE_capital_funding_allocations_2022_to_2023.xlsx) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 33.4 KB)
FE reclassification capital allocation – to be spent by March 2025

Eligible FE colleges, designated settings and sixth-form colleges received a share of an additional £150 million in capital funding in April 2023. This needed to be spent by March 2025.

The funding followed the reclassification of the FE sector (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reclassification-of-fe-colleges-sixth-form-colleges-and-designated-institutions-in-england-to-the-central-government-sector).

What funding was available
- allocations for FE reclassification capital allocation (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6398a5cee90e077c2502f70f/Allocations_for_FE_reclassification_capital_allocation.ods) (ODS, 13 KB)
- allocations for FE reclassification capital allocation (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/639893898fa8f552fe8711ef/Allocations_for_FE_reclassification_capital_allocation.xlsx) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 18.9 KB)