Lost planning appeal spells trouble for NCC

The National Construction College (NCC) East faces an uncertain future according to CITB-Construction-Skills, after the college lost its planning appeal to sell land to raise funds for badly needed improvements to the training facility.

The NCC, the training arm of ConstructionSkills, had hoped that it could raise £8.5m for extensive refurbishment of its ageing NCC East facility by selling 8ha of brownfield land for the construction of 250 houses.

But King's Lynn and West Norfolk Council's rejection of the appeal could result in the 40-year-old college being scaled down instead. NCC spokesman Andy Walder said: "This announcement puts the college in a difficult position, and although it would be unfair to speculate about its future before the next board meeting in February, closure of parts of the facility is now a real possibility."

The rejection is particularly bad news because the scheme to sell off land to meet the £15.9m cost of replacing NCC East was "the only option available to ensure a positive future for the college," according to a statement from the CITB.

Walder indicated that the college would now have to study the local council's report in detail and consider its options, perhaps involving a smaller development, before it started transferring training to other sites. The college's original plan was to build accommodation for 250 students on the site, as well as a leisure centre, a new entrance and reception and additional visitor parking, with the NCC board meeting £7.4m of the cost and the remainder coming from the sale of land.

In a statement, the CITB commented: "If the National Construction College was to cease providing training in any specialisms, there would be a severe negative impact on the industry." But the body was not available to comment on how much of an impact the rejection of the NCC's appeal would have on its national training programme. The NCC is is Europe's largest construction training provider.

ConstructionSkills identified a need for 87,000 new recruits to the construction industry every year until 2010 if it was to meet the anticipated surge in workload.