Agenda item

Report of the Director of Placemaking and Housing.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Council Housebuilding, Placemaking and Development.

The Cabinet Member for Council Housebuilding, Placemaking and Development introduced the report which provided an update on the progress made on the Civic Centre project, and sought approval to proceed through to the appointment of the main contractor, which would be brought back to Cabinet for approval at a future meeting.

In response to questions from Councillor Barnes, the following was noted:

-       There was a cross-party working group involved in the project, as well as consultation with local schools and residents to see how they would like the building to work.  Information relating to public involvement would be provided in writing.

-       River Park House would be considered as part of other plans, and would be included in a future report to Cabinet.

RESOLVED

1.           To agree to continue to proceed with the restoration and refurbishment of the existing Civic Centre, and its expansion through the addition of an Annex building, up to the conclusion of the procurement process to appoint a main contractor.

2.           To note that a further report will be brought to Cabinet to approve the main construction contract for the Civic Centre project, anticipated to be Q4 2023.

Reasons for decision

The Council office accommodation business case agreed by cabinet in January 2022 demonstrated that the best option to meet the Council’s core office accommodation needs was to restore and refurbish the Civic Centre along with the addition of an annex building.

The decision allowed the Council to continue to work to deliver this scheme, with the objectives of restoring the iconic Civic Centre building for civic and democratic functions, and with providing high-quality, accessible, and sustainable office accommodation in the heart of the borough.

The January 2022 decision agreed that the scheme would be developed through until the planning application stage, which has now been reached and thus this report seeks authorisation to proceed with the scheme up to the conclusion of the procurement process to appoint the main contractor, at which point the final contract award recommendation will be presented to Cabinet, currently anticipated to be during Q4 2023.

The January 2022 report also agreed the award of a preparatory works contract, which removed all redundant building services and asbestos in the Civic Centre building to prepare for the main construction contract and expose any hidden issues. The preparatory works contract has been successful in exposing previously unidentified condition issues and has allowed the project team to complete additional survey work and gain a better understanding of the condition of the existing structure, which has allowed for more detailed design proposals to be prepared.

Additionally, the January 2022 report also identified the risk that the construction industry was in a volatile state due to the impacts of Brexit and the Covid pandemic. The situation has worsened over the course of 2022 due the impact of the Ukraine crisis on the supply of materials and labour. The economic impact on these issues has led to the BCIS Tender Price Index projections increasing significantly.

It is ultimately a positive that the project team have been able to identify and fully assess these issues at this stage of the project as opposed to being discovered later in the programme when the impact would have been even greater, but the impact of these external economic factors along with the newly identified building condition issues, has resulted in an increase to construction cost estimates for the Civic Centre project.

As a result of this new information, it was felt prudent to re-test the previously assessed options to ensure that the current option still provided the best value for money to the Council. Therefore, the business case and options appraisal has been updated to reflect all newly available information.

As in January 2022, the two options assessed were:

·                     ‘Option 1’ – Restoring and refurbishing the existing Civic Centre Building, carry out further improvements to Alex House, consolidating staff accommodation into these two buildings as the Council’s core office locations. 48 Station Road would cease to be used for office accommodation

·                     ‘Option 2’ – Restoring, refurbishing and expanding the existing Civic Centre through the addition of an Annex building, consolidating staff accommodation into this single site as the Council’s core office location and ceasing to use Alex House and 48 Station Road for office accommodation purposes.

The result of refreshing the business case with the revised information is that both the qualitative and quantitative assessments of the two options demonstrate that the recommendation remains to proceed with Option 2, namely the refurbishing of the existing Civic Centre, and its expansion through the addition of an annex building. This continues to be option that offers the best value for money to the Council, whilst best meeting its strategic objectives.

This assessment takes into account that the recommended option continues to have a lower capital cost than the alternative option considered, and also has the smallest impact on on-going estate running costs.

Refurbishing the Civic Centre with the addition of an annex allows for the consolidation of the Council’s core office accommodation on a single site. This achieves the key strategic aims of enabling the Council’s flexible working ambitions and creating the greatest opportunities for the other Council office buildings in Wood Green to be released for alternative uses and support the transformation of central Wood Green (subject to future decisions).

Alternative options considered

The council have considered a range of alternative options, which culminated in the December 2020 decision to proceed with the refurbishment of the Civic Centre. These are in addition to the two options set out in Section 6 below, and in the Accommodation Review Business Case, in Appendix A, which is the subject of this report.