National Construction College in danger

Plans for a £26m redevelopment of the National Construction College have been thrown into doubt by the funding crisis engulfing the Learning and Skills council's building programme.

Proposals for a new construction training centre at Bircham Newton in Norfolk are due to be presented to the LSC in June.

But the council is struggling with a £3bn funding shortfall for college schemes across the country.

An LSC spokeswoman said: "Clearly there are more schemes currently presenting applications than can be funded in this spending round and not all schemes can be implemented in the original timescales envisaged."

The National Construction College East finally received full planning permission in January for a £26m redevelopment.

Morgan Ashurst has been confirmed as main contractor on the job where work was expected to start this summer before completion in February 2011.

A National Construction College spokesperson said: "The National Construction College is moving ahead as normal and the final, key step is to take detailed plans to the Learning and Skills Council in June to release the funding to allow work to start on site this summer. We continue to work closely with the LSC to achieve this."