The National Construction College may have to scale down its operations after failing to secure local funding

The National Construction College has failed to secure funding for its future despite last-ditch talks with council officials from West Norfolk, the home of the centre.

Earlier this month, the NCC failed with a planning application that would have secured funding for improvements to the centre by allowing housing development on part of the NCC鈥檚 land. NCC officials had been hopeful that another source of local funding could be found, but this has failed to materialise.

Andy Walder, NCC acting director, said: 鈥淒espite words of support from local and regional stakeholders, there has been no firm action and/or external funding packages forthcoming to address the shortfall in funding that we face.鈥�

The college is now considering scaling down its operations at Bircham Newton, the current NCC site, in favour of more site-based training on current projects. It is also considering partnering with other training organisations in the UK.

The board of training body ConstructionSkills, which runs the centre, is due to debate the future role of the NCC next month.

Walder today made a final appeal to local stakeholders for financial help for the college. He said: 鈥淪hould a package be offered in the coming weeks, we would, of course, invest in NCC East as planned.鈥�