As a former polytechnic person, I have no objection to the proposal that a sum of Pounds 4 million should "be explicitly linked to high achievement". I do however have one proviso, that payment should only be activated if in the subject area in question the unit of funding to that institution be at or below the average unit for teaching in that subject area, to "aid dissemination of good practice" from a level playing field.
I suspect that, should the above criteria apply, perhaps Pounds 3 million would still be available for allocation; it could be used in a small way to aid the levelling up of the units of resource.
P. V. O'Connor