Bosses of the new Nexus Centre in Gorleston said its enterprise zone location would help it save costs and plough more cash into the facility aimed at giving youngsters the skills needed to work in engineering.

The �1m faciliy on Beacon Park, part of the Great Yarmouth and Waveney enterprise zone features an energy and renewables laboratory, IT suites, an advanced manufacturing workshop, and 3D computer aided design (CAD) machinery.

Nexus Centre manager Keith Loveys, said: 'Moving to the new building will create wide-ranging opportunities for us. We are surrounded by engineering and energy sector businesses, schools, and colleges, which can benefit from what we have to offer.

'Being based in the enterprise zone enables us to have business rates relief,' he added. 'We will make significant cost savings which we can plough back into Nexus year after year. Also are premises are easily accessible by car or by local transport from both Suffolk and Norfolk, which is useful for trainees and staff.

Norfolk County Council and Great Yarmouth borough council provided the start-up funding to get Nexus off the ground, while equipment was provided by the Hethel Engineering Centre.

Ann Steward, the county council's cabinet member for economic development, said moving the equipment from Hethel to the new facility was the right thing to do.

'If you look at the opportunities that this area has got, it means that having the equipment here it will be used as much as possible, whereas when it was at Hethel it wasn't utilised as much as it could have been,' she said. 'It makes perfect sense when you think about the energy and engineering opportunties which will be happening in Great Yarmouth.

Andy Wood, chairman of New Anglia local enterprise partnership, which developed the enterprise zone, said the centre would play a pivotal role in understanding and delivering the skills needed by the engineering and energy industries.

Unveiling the new facility at an official opening ceremony, Great Yarmouth MP Brandon Lewis, said: 'It's great to see organisations and people coming together to make this facility.

'We have got so many opportunities in energy and engineering and for this to come together so quickly is fantastic.'