EDUCATION Minister Kim Howells has been told to act to end the cash crisis which has seen Bury College's budget slashed by £1 million.

Ex-lecturer turned Bury North Labour MP David Chaytor said the Tory government's "internal market" changes to the funding of further education had been a disaster.

Now some 50 colleges - not including Bury - faced possible bankruptcy.

In a special Commons debate yesterday he said urgent action was needed to bail the FE sector out of its financial crisis and reverse the Tory reforms.

Mr Howells said the government was committed to a root and branch review of the system following the pubication of a report into the FE sector in a few weeks time.

He pledged to feed Mr Chaytor's comments into that review

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