Agenda item

[Report of the Director for Housing, Regeneration and Planning. To be introduced by the Finance and Strategic Regeneration]

The Civic Centre has substantial investment needs but also offers an opportunity to meet some of the councils medium and long term accommodation needs. This report sets out options and a recommendation for investment.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Strategic Regeneration introduced the report which sought approval to support investment in a project to repair, restore, refurbish, and extend the Civic Centre. The project would bring the Civic Centre back into use by the Council as its new civic headquarters, including a high-quality refurbishment of the democratic spaces and the provision of modern office space.

The Cabinet Member reminded Members that the Civic Centre had closed in March 2020 for safety reasons. There had been work completed on helping the Council decide the future use of the Civic Centre and necessary repairs included in the capital programme. However, it had become clear that the costs of the repair work were very high due to its nature as a listed building and the Cabinet Member stressed that the Council had no other alternative but to spend money on the building due to its listed status.

The Cabinet Member put forward plans to spend additional funds to bring the Civic Centre up to a standard that reflected its listed English Heritage status. It was planned to modernise the services and continue to use it as a civic premise, not just for the Council but the community in the long term.

The Cabinet Member commended the report for approval and asked Cabinet to agree proposals to allow delivery of new Civic headquarters for use in 2024. The Cabinet Member would keep member informed of progress.

In view of the time, 9.40pm, the Leader moved to invoked Committee Standing order 63 to allow Committee Standing Order 18 to be suspended and allow the meeting to continue after 10pm. This was to complete the business on the agenda. Cabinet agreed this motion without dissent.

In response to the Leader, the Cabinet Member confirmed that it would cost more than £10m just to carry out basic repairs to the building.

In response to Councillor Dennison, the Cabinet Member stated that the decision to refurbish and improve the building was prudent and would be money well spent. It was more cost effective to spend money on the Civic Centre rather than to spend over £100m on building new Council premises. He added that he could not commit to a final cost, as it was always a risk when carrying out building work that extra costs may arise. He also advised that the car park was separate to these works and any decision on the future use of it would be a separate decision for the Cabinet to make.

The Leader reiterated that, if the Council did nothing with the building, apart from the absolute minimum it would cost £10m. It was further felt that this was not the right time to build a new civic centre which would cost more. Given the listed status and responsibility of the Council, it was prudent to invest in the asset, to allow development of a civic hub used by Council and community.

RESOLVED

1. To agree to the proposed use of the Haringey Civic Centre as the Council’s headquarters and democratic functions building, and to the repair, refurbishment and extension works as set out in more detail in paragraph 6.7 and 6.8 in this report.

2. To agree to a total sum of £24m towards the cost of the works, comprising of the £9.75m already in the capital programme and an additional £14.25m required for the project over 2020/21 to 2024/5, subject to the Council’s budget setting process.

3. To authorise officers to carry out further work to develop the design brief which will include exploration of the option to extend the Civic Centre or add an annex which could meet all of the Council’s HQ accommodation needs.

4. To note that, subject to the outcome of the work described in paragraph 3.3, a separate report will be brought to Cabinet in 2021 to recommend the contract for design works for this project.

Reasons for decision

The Civic Centre is a listed building, and the Council has a responsibility to ensure it is repaired and does not deteriorate further. Therefore, doing nothing with this building is not an option. The cost of basic repairs is estimated in excess of £12m, which the Council would need to spend in any case; whatever the decision about the future use of the Civic Centre. No serious alternative use for the Civic Centre has been found or could be found quickly given this liability, and therefore the responsibility will be retained by the Council to repair the building.

In doing the recent feasibility work, it has become clear that the additional cost of the project recommended in this report would lead to a much better outcome and better value for money. Investing a larger sum in a full repair, extension and refurbishment would enable the Council to provide a high quality democratic and office headquarters building within a relatively short timescale in comparison with other options being considered.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the Council’s accommodation requirements, with new agile and flexible working in place over a very short period of time. Whilst it will be important that staff do spend time in the office in the future, the effect is still that the Council’s longer-term accommodation needs will be smaller than previously thought. In addition, the work to locate more staff in localities has continued during the COVID-19 pandemic period, and this will further reduce the number of staff who need to be located in Wood Green itself.

On this basis, it is now considered possible that the Council could use the Civic Centre as its main headquarters, with all of the civic democratic functions and a large proportion of the centrally located staff teams based there. Work will continue to test the extent to which the Civic Centre will be able to accommodate all the Council’s headquarters needs, alongside George Meehan House and also work will continue on the future plans for the Council’s existing accommodation and buildings in Wood Green, including the Library.

Even though there is a new context for decision making regarding the Council’s accommodation strategy, a constant aim is the need to ensure that the overall accommodation strategy contributes to the MTFS. This contribution can be a mixture of reduced running costs and/or the application of capital receipts to reduce the borrowing costs incurred in delivering the strategy. This aim was previously agreed as being central to the accommodation strategy and remains so.

The refurbishment of the Civic Centre is the quickest way to provide a modern Council chamber and committee rooms which, in addition to a new and improved ground floor layout, can be used for a range of civic and community activities. The rooftop extension to the North wing will create a substantial increase in office area, meeting a significant proportion of the Council’s HQ office requirements.

This project will help the Council to plan to reduce, over time, the number of sites in Wood Green that it uses for accommodation to deliver savings in response to the Council’s financial position. Work is continuing to ensure that savings from accommodation can be identified over the course of the current Medium Term Financial plan, whilst also ensuring that any site which the Council ceases to use for accommodation as part of its plans and following the completion of the Civic Centre project is used in ways which will support economic growth and regeneration of Wood Green as well as the underlying business case for any capital investment.

Cabinet has previously agreed to take a future decision about the location of the Council’s office accommodation and civic space between the Library and Civic Centre. In making a decision to invest in the Civic Centre, it is possible due to changed needs that the Civic Centre, along with George Meehan House could meet most or all of the Council’s accommodation needs, which would mean that at an appropriate time later, a separate decision may be required about investment in the Library. Further work is required to test whether an extension or annex to the Civic Centre, with continued and more intensive use of George Meehan House could meet all of the Council’s headquarter accommodation needs. A separate report will be brought to Cabinet in 2021 about this along with a further report seeking agreement to the contract award for design works for this project.

Alternative options considered

As the Civic Centre is Grade 2 Listed, the building needs to be retained and repaired and made viable for future use and therefore doing nothing is not a realistic option to consider.

A range of options have been explored from basic repair on the basis of possible short life use pending a decision about the Library site, through to different levels of refurbishment and extension on the current footprint.

Carrying out basic repairs only would significantly restrict the capacity of the building and some parts of it would remain unusable, the existing cellular layout of the North Wing would not provide a modern fit for purpose office environment which would enable the open plan shared collaboration spaces we need. Basic repairs would mean the building would remain tired in appearance and fail to provide an uplifting environment for members, officers and residents to enjoy.

The option, which is being recommended, as is described in section 6.7 and 6.8, provides a better value longer term investment for the building.

This decision allows for the option to build an annex to the Civic Centre in the car park site to continue to be explored and a recommendation about this, which will include the site’s suitability for housing as an alternative, will be made in early 2021.