Bircham Newton’s CITB site to be sold

Plans to sell Bircham Newton’s construction industry training site have been announced.

Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) will sign a heads of terms agreement with West Suffolk College over the sale of the National Construction College (NCC) in the west Norfolk village, bosses have confirmed.

The two organisations will now enter a period of due diligence with a view to transferring the ownership and running of the business from CITB to West Suffolk College, with similar agreements over heads of terms already being reached in relation to CITB’s Health and Safety Training business.

CITB chief executive, Sarah Beale, said: “The agreements mean that CITB and West Suffolk College will be working to secure the continuity of training provision for the construction industry in relation to both quality and quantity. They also mean that the north west Norfolk area would continue to host a major British training college. We are looking forward to working together to build and grow the training at Bircham Newton, which will benefit the construction industry, NCC and the local area.”

Dr Nikos Savvas, Principal of West Suffolk College, added: “West Suffolk College is delighted to be working with CITB on the acquisition of the National Construction College – Bircham Newton. We have a long history of working with employers to upskill and retrain their staff across a number of campuses and firmly believe that we can maintain, develop and build upon the industry-wide reputation of NCC as the home of construction training in the UK. We want to build on the experience and knowledge of the NCC team to make Bircham Newton a Centre of Excellence in UK.”

The National Construction College remains open for business and is taking bookings throughout 2020.

The news follows a 3-year period of uncertainty when CITB first announced plans to move its headquarters to Peterborough in 2017.

North West Norfolk MP James Wild spoke to Town and Around in January regarding the future of the CITB site. He stated:

“This week I spoke to CITB Chief Executive Sarah Beale about the future of the Bircham Newton site. I was assured that CITB’s top priority is to secure a new training provider and they are working hard on that. It is very important to maintain the specialist skills training in West Norfolk and I will do all I can as the MP to help.”