Help, need gcc 4.8 or above (c++11 support)

Ive just installed linuxcnc using the image from the website. Was wondering if there is a way to install linuxcnc on ubuntu 16.04?
I need to have gcc 4.8 so i can compile pcb2gcode.
And ive stuffed around with a few things with no luck...

Does anyone have any ideas?

Also would like to install kicad and freecad on the machine, but struggling to find current builds of these for such an old version of debian...

I need to have gcc 4.8 so i can compile pcb2gcode.

Why do you need to compile it, you can install it as a package for wheezy?
packages.debian.org/wheezy/pcb2gcode

Also would like to install kicad and freecad on the machine, but struggling to find current builds of these for such an old version of debian...

kicad is available from the main repo and backports
packages.debian.org/wheezy/kicad
packages.debian.org/wheezy-backports/kicad

freecad is in backports too
packages.debian.org/wheezy-backports/freecad

ok thats great, is the pcb2gcodeGUI available in a repo somewhere also?

That will all save a world of pain

If you put 'wheezy pcb2gcode GUI' into a search engine, you will find, amongst others

github.com/pcb2gcode/pcb2gcodeGUI

The README in this tends to suggest that by enabling wheezy-backports, you can compile the GUI in the same manner as if building on Jessie.
It must mean that the libc6 / libc++ changes etc using gcc/g++ 4.9 are not a major problem.

You can let us know when you try it