Witt in debt deal

After 18 long months of negotiations, Witt has finally reached an agreement with the Government over its $17 million debt.

The polytech's council unanimously agreed to the conditions of two loan agreements yesterday – one which wipes $12 million of debt and the other which allows the further $5 million to be paid off between 2020 and 2025.

Council chairwoman Mary Bourke said it meant the end of a ongoing saga for Witt.

"It's pretty exciting," she told the group.

"Shall we all stand up on the table and do a tap dance?"

Despite Tertiary Education Minister Anne Tolley, who they'd signed the agreement with, being removed from that portfolio yesterday, Ms Bourke said she was not concerned.

"We're looking forward to working with the new minister Steven Joyce," she said.

"Where it's been seen by some as creating more uncertainty we'd like to look to the positive with a productive frame of mind."

The news that an agreement had been reached came hand-in-hand with another positive for the polytech yesterday – it had come in $1.3 million favourable to its budget last year.

That meant a surplus of nearly $800,000.

Chief executive Richard Handley said he was extremely happy with the financial result.

"While we can't claim that one swallow makes a spring, this is a strong financial result and much better than we'd budgeted for."

Mr Handley said they'd made the surplus by managing costs very firmly, been at full quota with students, achieved some growth in student numbers and had great staff support.

- © Fairfax NZ News