National Education Union (NEU) members at HSDC will be striking on June 13, 18 and 19 over mass job cuts across the college’s three campuses in Alton, Havant and Purbrook.

They will be joined by members of the University and College Union (UCU), who have also voted to strike. Pickets will take place outside each campus from 8am until 10am on each date.

NEU members are striking as the college intends to make more than 70 redundancies to ease serious cash flow pressures relating to a property strategy that has been repeatedly delayed over the past ten years. The college has estimated that it will make savings of £3.7 million by these staffing cuts.

A Health Check report from the Further Education Commissioner (FEC) that was published in February identified that the financial pressures were so extreme that the college was in danger of running out of cash this year - meaning it would have insufficient funds to cover the redundancy payments it is proposing, which will cost in excess of £1m.

The college advised the unions that it will look to “reprofile” - borrow - part of its 2025-26 funding from the Department for Education (DfE) to meet these redundancy costs and other pressing commitments.

The FEC report identified that the cash flow pressures were linked to an “ambitious” property strategy which ran into trouble because it was reliant upon the sale of land at the South Downs campus in Purbrook to fund it.

It was originally expected that this sale would be completed in early 2022, but there is some doubt over when any payments will be received. It is expected that the sale price will be reduced, and the college has advised its staff that even if this sale was completed it would not resolve the underlying financial operational issues.

Last month the college received a Financial Notice to Improve from the DfE, and it will be under formal financial intervention and increased oversight from the DfE and the FEC.

This follows confirmation that the college had a Financial Health grade of “Inadequate” for the year that ended in July 2024, after it had previously forecast to be in surplus in June 2024.

In October it was discovered that the college was actually in deficit because of “the late identification of expenditure”, and its financial health score was downgraded from “Requires Improvement”.

The FEC report noted that this updated position came “as something of a shock to the college governors”.

NEU regional secretary Phil Clarke said: “It is clear that the college is in a dire financial situation, but our members are in no doubt it is the college leadership who are responsible for the appalling impact on front-line jobs and student provision. The lack of oversight and accounting is truly damning.

“To have pursued a property strategy that has now left the college unable to meet its own costs is nothing short of an outrage. Scores of our and the UCU’s members are at risk of losing their jobs and the college cannot even afford to make the redundancy payments it is proposing without additional funding from the DfE. Other than cutting jobs, their solution is to get an advance on next year’s funding, which is just kicking the can down the road.

“Our members are taking strike action to save jobs, as far as they can, and to ensure that redundancy terms are fair. They are also fighting to protect the working conditions of those who will remain employed next year and beyond, whose workload will undoubtedly increase with bigger class sizes and fewer staff.

“They are calling on the DfE to hold their employer to account for bringing the college to this position and demand ongoing transparency with the college’s finances. They demand that staff have a voice in the future of the college when strategic decisions are made so that this type of ruinous decision making will never be repeated.”

The NEU has 123 members across HSDC’s three campuses. The turnout for the strike ballot was 77 per cent, with 87 per cent of those members voting for strike action.