AN education group is backing moves which would see colleges including Keighley's have VAT charges reimbursed.

And Luminate Education Group – whose sites include the Bradford Road campus – has also welcomed the support of West Yorkshire's mayor, Tracy Brabin.

It's estimated the change in VAT rules would save cash-strapped colleges nationally around £200 million a year – and put them on an equal footing with school sixth forms and 16-19 academies, which already reap the benefit.

Speaking during Colleges Week, Ms Brabin said: "At a crucial time for learning and development, college students deserve to have all the resources they need to thrive.

"That’s why I'm backing calls to even the playing field for colleges and reinvest vital funds back into the system."

Bill Jones, deputy chief executive officer of Luminate Education Group, says: "A flourishing further education sector is crucial to creating the skilled workforce our country, and economy, urgently needs – and plugging those skills gaps that are holding us back.

"But to perform this vital work and recruit, and retain, the quality staff we need requires sufficient funding which sadly has not been consistent over a number of years. Changing the law to grant us the same VAT status as schools and academies wouldn’t fix that on its own, but it would be a terrific start and provide the sector with a welcome morale boost.

"We were thrilled to see Tracy Brabin, who has been a real supporter of both Luminate Education Group and the wider sector, publicly backing this campaign during Colleges Week."

The Association of Colleges has made the VAT issue a cornerstone of a wider campaign to secure better funding for further education this year.

Its chief executive, David Hughes, says: "It is brilliant to see Tracy Brabin support our call for the VAT rules imposed on colleges to be scrapped. Now we need both the Labour Party and current Government to do the same.

"Colleges educate and train over half of all 16-to-18-year-olds and yet, unlike schools, they lose VAT of about £200m per year on the funding they receive. This is fundamentally unfair to the college students who deserve all of that funding to go on their learning.

"Reimbursing that VAT would go a long way to helping colleges build on the great support and education they offer their students and help address the long-term underfunding of this phase of education."