Plans to expand or improve nine London colleges have been dashed.

Only two out of 11 colleges in the Greater London area have been given permission to press ahead with ambitious development plans, following a review of the further education funding fiasco.

All the colleges had been given the green light to proceed with development plans by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

But the proposals were put on hold earlier this year - when it emerged that the LSC had promised to provide far more than the £2.3 billion it actually had available.

Now, the LSC has announced that it can go ahead with just 13 of the 79 schemes across the country it originally approved.

They include Leyton Sixth Form College, in Leyton, east London, and South Thames College, based in Wandsworth, south west London.

But many others have been told they will have to scrap their plans until more money is available.

They include the College of North West London, in the Willesden area; Harrow College, Harrow; Lewisham College, Lewisham; Merton College, Morden; Regent College, central London; Uxbridge College, Uxbridge; Westminster Adult Education Service, based in Westminster; Westminster Kingsway College, which has campuses across central London, and Working Mens College, Camden.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is responsible for further education, said they would have the chance to apply for the next round of funding, which begins in 2011-12.

In practice, it means ambitious plans, such as Lewisham College's proposals for a £150 million skills centre in Deptford, south London, are cancelled for the foreseeable future.

In a written statement to the House of Commons, Kevin Brennan, Minister for Further Education, said the Learning and Skills Council, a government quango, was responsible.

He said: "Mistakes were made by the Learning and Skills Council in carrying out the further education Capital programme."

He added: "There is now new leadership to the organisation and measures in place to ensure that there will be no repeat of those mistakes as the programme moves forward."

But Conservatives claimed the Government was responsible.

David Willetts, the Shadow Secretary of State for Universities and Skills, said: "It is the young people deprived of high quality training opportunities who are the real losers from Labour's incompetence."

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