After an absence of 400 years, the Eurasian beaver is back in Essex, with a pair now released into an enclosure on a historic country estate.

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.

The UK HPI shows house price changes for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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

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