FUTURE OF COUNTY HALL PART OF REVIEW
COUNCIL IS LOOKING AT HOW AND WHERE IT WILL WORK POST-COVID
THE future of County Hall and other county council-owned buildings is to be reviewed in response to the pandemic.
The Tory-run council’s cabinet was recently given an update on the authority’s Covid-19 response and recovery plans, which confirmed managers have been asked to draw up plans for staff working from home into next year.
Chris Lewis, the head of transformation, told members: “Given the ongoing nature of the pandemic and our response to it, managers across the council have been asked to review delivery plans and extend them to the end of March.
“One of the areas of particular emphasis is the ongoing support for staff who continue to work from home.
“Work is continuing to help define how those arrangements will go on, including the use of our county council estate, that will continue into the long term.”
A report about the impact of coronavirus outlined some of the challenges facing the authority.
It said: “The emerging Ways of Working programme will be bold in its ambition in relation to reviewing the property estate, including the County Hall campus, changing the workplace model, investing in valueadding technology and, importantly, supporting people – maintaining and improving wellbeing, performance and productivity, as well as unlocking further opportunities for financial savings.”
No specific details about what the review could mean for the future of the council’s Glenfield HQ were discussed.
When the Mercury asked if the review could mean County Hall would be put up for sale, a spokesman said: “It’s too early to say what a review of the council’s property holdings might identify.”
Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Simon Galton said he understands any changes to County Hall would likely be related to the council renting out unused space, given it likely that home working will continue for some staff who used to be based there.
Asked about the line in the cabinet report, Declan Keegan, assistant director of finance and property at the council, said: “It’s too early to say really but it is about looking at where we’re going to be on the other side of Covid.
“We were on that path a bit anyway, recognising it doesn’t have to be one person to one desk, but Covid has accelerated that.
“There are two paths, you can dispose of offices or you can rent them out and I suppose everyone is thinking a similar thing – do we need to always be in the office?
“It’s going to be one of those things we will have to look at when the Covid crisis settles down.
“Can we offer the sort of accommodation people will want to rent out or should we try to dispose of it?”
Councillor Byron Rhodes, lead member for finance, said: “What we are seeking to do is to use the accommodation we do need most effectively so where we have certain buildings around the county which we could vacate, we’re already moving in that direction anyway and we will dispose of those.
“It does look like we’ll have considerable amounts of surplus space at County Hall and obviously we will seek to bring people in to use that up and use it for other purposes.
“In an extreme situation, I suppose we could start to look at consolidating into smaller buildings.
“We’re not yet at that stage because while at the moment everyone is saying the future use of offices will be very little and everyone is going to work from home, I think post-Covid we will arrive at a balance which is perhaps a little bit more working with other people than we might imagine.
“So it is too early to say but certain buildings it would be prudent to terminate and not to renew leases.”