Agenda item

[Report of the Director for Planning, Regeneration and Development. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources.]Cabinet to consider  the Council's Future  office accommodation requirements and recommendations.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources introduced the report which proposed relocating the Council office towards the Clarendon Road/ Coburg Road area, to release prime accommodation for redevelopment and to encourage a significant footfall to walk away from the High Street, creating depth to the currently narrow retail strip and meeting regeneration objectives for Wood Green.

Cabinet noted that existing accommodation is deteriorating, expensive to run and no longer fit for purpose. No one building was of sufficient size to accommodate the requirements of the Council in the future. The existing office sites were included in the Haringey Development Vehicle. In order to enable that development to take place the buildings will need to be vacated. Moving to a single new building would create an opportunity to save on the Council’s revenue costs, reduce the amount of space the Council occupies and its Carbon footprint.

In response to Councillor Engert’s questions it was noted:

• Cross Rail 2 update  – public consultation on November 17^th  in the borough ,by  that time council will have knowledge on a preferred route , and  there are more positive soundings about a north/ west  branch of the route.

• In relation to the £10m allocation to the new Council building, given the Council’s commitment to Wood Green regeneration, having a stake in the regeneration in wood green, though significant landholding is required to support regeneration and the same strategy that has been followed in Tottenham.

• Current staff numbers were 2703.

RESOLVED

1. To note that a bid for £425,000 from the Transformation Fund has been submitted to Resources Priority Board in order to appoint a Programme Team to deliver the Future Ways of Working programme to complete the business case over the remainder of 2016/17. The business case will be brought back to Cabinet with a five year plan for the delivery of the programme;

2. That the head leasehold interest in the sites set out in Part B of this report be acquired by the Council.  A budget of up to £10m is approved to acquire both head leases from the Council’s site acquisition fund. That the final price and heads of terms for both sites be delegated to the Director of Regeneration, Planning and Development in consultation with the Section 151 officer and Lead member for Corporate Resources;

3. That if the headlesses cannot be acquired, then in the alternative, a joint venture be agreed with the head lesses in order to procure the building of both sites or either site within the same budget as in (b), and the heads of terms of the joint venture be delegated to the Director of Regeneration, Planning and Development in consultation with the Section 151 officer and the Lead member for Corporate Resources.

4. That the sites identified in Part B of this report be included as a site for the HDV and become part of the Competitive Dialogue process and to note that the details of the delivery of the new office development will be reported at a future Cabinet.

5. That the S151 officer be delegated responsibility to re -profile the budget for the Site Acquisition Fund as necessary to deliver the programme of acquisitions.

Reasons for decision

The financial, economic, social and technical environment in which the Council now operates requires the implementation of further efficiencies in the way the Council works.

The Future Ways of Working programme will support the delivery of the Corporate Plan and the Council of the Future, providing a skilled, agile workforce, aligned to the Council’s values.

The existing Council accommodation is costly and no longer fit for purpose and does not support the future requirements of the Council.

The current office buildings in Station Road, River Park House and the Civic Centre are prime regeneration sites as identified in the Investment Framework and subsequently included in the Haringey Development Vehicle.

In order to meet the future requirements of the Council and the regeneration of Wood Green, the Council requires a new office building to be procured to house the Council’s future staff requirement so that the current accommodation can be vacated for redevelopment.

A site options appraisal has identified two potential sites which are Council owned as set out in Part B of this report. Both are subject to head leases one of which will need to be acquired to enable development.

Both sites should be acquired on the basis that they are both significant strategic sites which the Council would control and provide an opportunity to promote a new employment based development as well as the Council’s office accommodation requirement as part of the Place making strategy in Wood Green. 

Alternative options considered

The continued funding cuts imposed by Central Government, provides us with no alternative other than to implement a significant transformation programme to enable services to deliver the Corporate Plan and Priorities. The programme will need to deliver significant cultural change to increase the flexibility and agility of staff, improve their capabilities and skills and ultimately embed a culture where staff are committed to delivering customer expectations and provide an excellent service.

A number of options have been considered for the future accommodation requirements, the first being the refurbishment of River Park House and Alexandra House as a future central office for the Council. This option was reviewed when the Council was seeking to purchase the Alexandra House freehold, the Council were outbid in this purchase and we currently remain as a tenant. The rental of potentially up to £1m pa or an attempt to again purchase the freehold is considered not to be financially viable. River Park House is not big enough as a sole office and therefore the site would gain greater benefits as a regeneration site within the HDV.

Redevelopment of the existing Civic Centre site was assessed, but the building is considered to have reached the end of its useful life as accommodation for Council services. The Investment Framework does not support an office development in this area and it would not aid the regeneration of the High Street.

The final option is to build a new office development. The Area Action Plan, January 2016 Cabinet Report suggested the Council offices be developed in the Clarendon Road/ Coburg Road area in order to create a footfall flowing through a green link towards Alexandra Palace Park and therefore start to add depth to the narrow High Street. Two current freehold sites considered in this area are set out in Part B of this report.

We considered splitting front office (civic centre, library, customer services) and back office (staff accommodation) between the High Street and the Clarendon Road area. However, the footfall created by visitors to the Council office and use of the new east/west link will increase regeneration potential for the area and increase the likelihood of adding depth to the High Street through an increased commercial offering. In addition, the current Library site would be made available for development with all services located to one building in Coburg Road.

It is proposed that both site options are pursued allowing the Council to control to provide both the new accommodation as well as ensure suitable employment space is retained in the area.