West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has called for a formal investigation into the actions of the management team of the Warwickshire College Group as it continues to stall a community-led bid to take over Malvern Hills College.

The management team have consistently blocked bids to take over the site and have claimed that it is not able to progress with the deal ‘because it is a charity’.

Harriett has written to Charity Commission chief executive Helen Stephenson asking her to look into the issue and to confirm whether WCG is a charity or a business.

The MP has also written to the new Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi asking for him to intervene. He has also had to deal with the college closure issue when Henley College was closed down by the Leamington Spa-based college group.

Harriett said:

“I am increasingly frustrated by the way the Warwickshire College Group management are handling this issue. There is a perfectly fair bid on the table which will allow education at the college to continue, preserving teaching and jobs.

“As they are an education charity, I have asked the Charity Commission to evaluate whether this mission should override the College’s stated aim to flog the site to the highest bidder.

“The purpose of organisations like Warwickshire College Group should be about delivering teaching and this community-led bid does exactly that. Instead they seem to be focused on asset stripping and this is not the first community that has lost its college in this way,

“I understand that the new Education Secretary has some personal knowledge of the way Warwickshire College operates and I have asked him to study this situation to make sure that we are able to save Malvern Hills College and bring teaching back to the historic site.”