Thirteen colleges across England will receive funding totalling £1.8 million to help drive up standards, Apprenticeships and Skills Minister Anne Milton announced today (Wednesday 20 March).

Successful colleges from the second round of the Strategic College Improvement Fund (SCIF) will receive a total of £1.8 million between them from the overall £15m fund.

The SCIF was launched in June 2018, and 63 colleges across England have been successful in securing funding to work with a high performing ‘partnering’ college to share their knowledge and expertise to help tackle issues – such as raising the standard of teaching or boosting learner attendance and retention.

Anne Milton, Apprenticeships and Skills Minister said:

Our colleges have a vital role to play in making sure people of all ages and backgrounds get the chance to learn new skills and go on to have successful careers.

The Strategic College Improvement Fund is designed to help support colleges to improve and make sure their students receive the high quality education they deserve.

I’m thrilled to announce the second round of colleges to receive funding from the scheme. We’ve seen great success so far and I look forward to hearing how they are all progressing.

Teresa Kelly, Deputy FE Commissioner said:

I am really pleased that another group of colleges have been awarded a SCIF grant. The initiative is proving to be very popular across the sector and we are beginning to see the real benefits to students that can result from colleges learning from each other through the development of best practice.

Many colleges have fed back to me that they consider that the SCIF initiative is proving to be so successful as it is harnessing what is best in teaching, learning and assessment and enabling teaching staff to enhance the quality of their practice in a wide variety of settings.

Bill Watkin, Chief Executive, Sixth Form Colleges Association, said:

The Strategic College Improvement Fund has proven to be a well-structured and well-funded programme that has encouraged and facilitated system leadership in the college sector and has enabled colleges to share their strengths and to learn from each other as they continue to raise standards. I hope that this will experience will be repeated and that colleges will continue to benefit from this support in the future.

David Corke, Director of Policy at the Association of Colleges, said:

Colleges have really valued the opportunity to share successful practice through previous rounds of the Strategic College Improvement Fund and this is contributing to driving improvement within our sector. All colleges which identify areas for improvement can benefit from quality improvement peer network and the learning should then be shared widely in the sector.

A recent report showed the SCIF has been welcomed by the sector, and the SCIF’s peer-to-peer support model received overwhelming support from the colleges that took part in the pilot phase. Colleges reported several positives including how the scheme helped them boost the quality of teaching and learning, strengthened their collaborative working approaches, raised aspirations and supported college-wide improvements in culture and leadership.

The fund is playing a vital role alongside the Government’s National Leaders of Further Education (NLFEs) programme helping to share best practice and boost standards throughout the further education sector, so more people can access high quality education and training.

England

In England, the January data shows on average, house prices have fallen by 1.0% since December 2018. The annual price rise of 1.5% takes the average property value to £244,567.

The regional data for England indicates that:

• the East Midlands experienced the greatest monthly price rise, up by 0.2%
• the North East saw the most significant monthly price fall, down by 3.3%
• the East Midlands experienced the greatest annual price rise, up by 4.4%
• London saw the largest annual price fall, down by 1.6%

Price change by region for England

Repossession sales by volume for England

The lowest number of repossession sales in November 2018 was in the East of England.

The highest number of repossession sales in November 2018 was in the North West.

Average price by property type for England

Funding and buyer status for England

Building status for England

Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

London

London shows, on average, house prices have fallen by 0.3% since December 2018. An annual price fall of 1.6% takes the average property value to £472,230.

Average price by property type for London

Funding and buyer status for London

Building status for London

Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Wales

Wales shows, on average, house prices have fallen by 1.3% since December 2018. An annual price rise of 4.6% takes the average property value to £160,232.

There were 57 repossession sales for Wales in November 2018.

Average price by property type for Wales

Funding and buyer status for Wales

Building status for Wales

Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Access the full UK HPI

UK house prices rose by 1.7% in the year to January 2019, down from 2.2% in the year to December 2018. This is the lowest annual growth for the UK since June 2013, when house prices increased by 1.5%.

The UK Property Transaction Statistics for January 2019 showed that on a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of transactions on residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater was 101,170. This is 1.3% higher compared to a year ago. Between December 2018 and January 2019, transactions increased by 0.8%.

House prices grew fastest in Wales increasing by 4.6% in the year to January 2019. House prices in London fell by 1.6% in the year to January 2019.

See the economic statement.

Notes to editors

1. The UK House Price Index (HPI) is published on the second or third Wednesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. The February 2019 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on Wednesday 17 April 2019. See calendar of release dates.

2. We have made some changes to improve the accuracy of the UK HPI. We are not publishing average price and percentage change for new builds and existing resold property as done previously because there are not currently enough new build transactions to provide a reliable result. This means that in this month’s UK HPI reports, new builds and existing resold property are reported in line with the sales volumes currently available.

3. The UK HPI revision period has been extended to 13 months, following a review of the revision policy (see calculating the UK HPI section 4.4). This ensures the data used is more comprehensive.

4. Sales volume data is also available by property status (new build and existing property) and funding status (cash and mortgage) in our downloadable data tables. Transactions involving the creation of a new register, such as new builds, are more complex and require more time to process. Read revisions to the UK HPI data.

5. Revision tables have been introduced for England and Wales within the downloadable data. Tables will be available in csv format. See about the UK HPI for more information.

6. Data for the UK HPI is provided by HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and the Valuation Office Agency.

7. The UK HPI is calculated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. It applies a hedonic regression model that uses the various sources of data on property price, in particular HM Land Registry’s Price Paid Dataset, and attributes to produce estimates of the change in house prices each month. Find out more about the methodology used from the ONS and Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

8. The UK Property Transaction statistics are taken from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) monthly estimates of the number of residential and non-residential property transactions in the UK and its constituent countries. The number of property transactions in the UK is highly seasonal, with more activity in the summer months and less in the winter. This regular annual pattern can sometimes mask the underlying movements and trends in the data series so HMRC also presents the UK aggregate transaction figures on a seasonally adjusted basis. Adjustments are made for both the time of year and the construction of the calendar, including corrections for the position of Easter and the number of trading days in a particular month.

9. UK HPI seasonally adjusted series are calculated at regional and national levels only. See data tables.

10. The first estimate for new build average price (April 2016 report) was based on a small sample which can cause volatility. A three-month moving average has been applied to the latest estimate to remove some of this volatility.

11. Work has been taking place since 2014 to develop a single, official HPI that reflects the final transaction price for sales of residential property in the UK. Using the geometric mean, it covers purchases at market value for owner-occupation and buy-to-let, excluding those purchases not at market value (such as re-mortgages), where the ‘price’ represents a valuation.

12. Information on residential property transactions for England and Wales, collected as part of the official registration process, is provided by HM Land Registry for properties that are sold for full market value.

13. The HM Land Registry dataset contains the sale price of the property, the date when the sale was completed, full address details, the type of property (detached, semi-detached, terraced or flat), if it is a newly built property or an established residential building and a variable to indicate if the property has been purchased as a financed transaction (using a mortgage) or as a non-financed transaction (cash purchase).

14. Repossession sales data is based on the number of transactions lodged with HM Land Registry by lenders exercising their power of sale.

15. For England, this is shown as volumes of repossession sales recorded by Government Office Region. For Wales, there is a headline figure for the number of repossession sales recorded in Wales.

16. The data can be downloaded as a .csv file. Repossession sales data prior to April 2016 is not available. Find out more information about repossession sales.

17. Background tables of the raw and cleansed aggregated data, in Excel and CSV formats, are also published monthly although Northern Ireland is on a quarterly basis. They are available for free use and re-use under the Open Government Licence.

18. HM Land Registry’s mission is to guarantee and protect property rights in England and Wales.

19. HM Land Registry is a government department created in 1862. It operates as an executive agency and a trading fund and its running costs are covered by the fees paid by the users of its services. Its ambition is to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.

20. HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership worth in excess of £4 trillion, including around £1 trillion of mortgages. The Land Register contains more than 25 million titles showing evidence of ownership for some 86% of the land mass of England and Wales.

21. For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry

22. Follow us on Twitter, our blog, LinkedIn and Facebook.

The Environment Agency, together with Colyton Parish Council and Colyton History Society will commemorate the floods of July 1968 with a free exhibition of historic flood photographs and maps.

Residents and visitors are invited to come along and share their experiences or to simply view the photographs on display.

Chris Khan, Flood Resilience Officer at the Environment Agency, said:

Over 750 people attended a similar event in Sidmouth last year – it was an amazing success with people coming from all over the country. The feedback was very positive and other communities have asked if we could hold another exhibition.

We are very excited to be working with Colyton Parish Council and Colyton History Society on this second event. The exhibition will include many historical flooding photographs and maps from our archive. We would like as many people as possible to come along, share memories and bring any photographs they have.

Devon Communities Together (DCT) will also be attending the event. DCT are working with parishes across Devon, helping communities write their emergency plans.

Colyton Parish Council are currently looking for volunteers to help out in the community in a number of different roles and will be there on the day to speak to anyone who may be interested.

The impacts of the flood in 1968 were immense; bridges collapsed causing roads to close. Sidmouth, Colyton, Honiton, Newton Poppleford, East Budleigh and Ottery St Mary all had significant flood damage whilst the Otterhead reservoir was completely washed away.

A lot has changed since 1968; similar storms still occur but people and businesses are better protected than ever before. In the last 10 years the government has invested more than £6.1 billion in flood risk management work including many flood alleviation schemes across the south west.

There are also tools to help you reduce your own risk of flooding. The Environment Agency send targeted flood warnings to over a million people in England – giving them vital time to prepare for flooding. You can sign up for free flood warnings online or by ringing 0345 988 1188.

Online giants, including PayPal, have been called out by the Education Secretary to stop promoting and facilitating access to essay writing services, as the government signals its intention to ‘beat the cheats’ at university today (20 March).

In the first of a series of interventions across the higher education sector, Damian Hinds has challenged PayPal to stop processing payments for ‘essay mills’ as part of an accelerated drive to preserve and champion the quality of the UK’s world-leading higher education system.

Technology giants such as Google and YouTube have responded to these calls and are taking steps ‘beat the cheats’ by removing hundreds of advertisements for essay writing services and promotional content from their sites. Other platforms that have not acknowledged this issue are being told to follow suit.

As part of a range of action being taken by the department and the sector, the Education Secretary is also calling on universities to crackdown on those found cheating at university and is calling on higher education providers to consider ‘honour codes’, which would see students sign a pledge not to use essay writing services for their own assignments.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:

Sadly there have always been some people who opt for the easy way and the internet has seen a black market in essay writing services spring up. However, no matter how easy it is to access these services now, it doesn’t change the fact that this is cheating, and students must understand it is unacceptable.

It is simply unethical for these companies to profit from this dishonest business which is exploiting young people and it is time to stamp them out of our world-class higher education sector.

I am determined to beat the cheats who threaten the integrity of our system and am calling on online giants, such as PayPal, to block payments or end the advertisement of these services – it is their moral duty to do so.

There has been some positive progress made by some in the tech sector but it is vital that we all unite to clamp down on this practice and the companies that are feeding on it.

In 2016 the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) found there are approximately 17,000 instances of academic offences per year in the UK, however the number of students using essay writing services is thought to be much higher as plagiarised essays often go undetected. A study by Swansea University of students internationally, found the number of students outside the UK who admitted to paying for assignments since 2014 equates to one in seven.

Work is already underway across the sector to tackle the issue, with companies like Turnitin developing more sophisticated software to detect plagiarism. There are currently 10 universities globally that are trialling new software developed by Turnitin to identify cheating of this kind.

Universities Minister Chris Skidmore said:

Developing your knowledge and applying it at a high standard is at the very core of a university education, but these essay writing companies and the students paying for these services are undermining the foundations that our HE system is built upon.

Students work incredibly hard to get a place at university and those who choose to cheat risk throwing it all away for the sake of a shortcut. It is right that those who have the ability to limit access to these services, including online platforms, do everything within their power to do so – not only for students but our world-class reputation.

In January Mr Hinds announced that the department will be publishing an Education Technology strategy this spring to help the industry tackle some of the key challenges facing the education sector. This will include encouraging tech companies to identify how anti-cheating software can tackle the growth of essay mills and stay one step ahead of the cheats.

The Education Secretary also wants universities to improve inductions to make it clear to students from day one that using essay writing services is unacceptable and make sure that students are assessed in a variety of ways to not overly rely on essays.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:

When I was at university I was struck by American friends who talked about the honour code system.

They wouldn’t consider even low-level plagiarism because it broke this code – an agreement as they saw it between themselves and the university, and their peers.

I also expect universities to do everything in their power to prevent students being tempted by these companies by introducing initiatives such as honour codes and making sure their students are aware of the severe consequences they face if they are caught cheating. Students should know that they face being thrown off their course if they are found to be cheating.

The Department for Education has worked with the QAA, Universities UK (UUK) and the National Union of Students to publish guidance for all universities on how best to tackle the use of essay mills. This includes educating students about the risks of using essay writing services and blocking advertisements of these services on campus.

The QAA, which campaigns against essay mills and contract cheating on behalf of the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment, wrote to online platforms in November last year to ask them to join the drive to stop promoting these services. Google has since taken down hundreds of adverts and positive steps have also been taken by YouTube to remove promotional material on channels.

The Office for Students is responsible for taking action against universities if they are found to be complicit in cheating. The regulator has strong powers to take action where it finds providers are not working in students’ interests including placing conditions on registration, financial penalties and ultimately deregistration in the most serious cases.

QAA Chief Executive Douglas Blackstock said:

The UK has a world-leading reputation for the standards and quality of its higher education and we are not going to let these companies undermine it. Companies that try to entice students to buy so-called plagiarism free essays pose a real threat to the academic integrity of our higher education. These unscrupulous operators, increasingly and falsely marketing themselves as providing legitimate study aids, must be stopped in their tracks.

Students need to understand that if they get caught their professional careers and personal reputations are at risk. More worryingly, we have recently heard stories of essay companies attempting to blackmail students by threatening to expose them unless they hand over greater sums of money.

Hundreds of essay companies across the world use online platforms to promote or transact their services to students. We applaud the government for putting pressure on these powerful platforms to stop doing business with essay cheat companies, making it increasingly difficult for them to find an audience for the unscrupulous services that damage reputations and lives.