Councillors back moves to sell-off entire Herts County Hall site – for an estimated £50m

The vast majority of staff from County Hall moved to the council’s Stevenage offices in 2023 – as increased hybrid-working resulted in too many surplus desk spaces.

And the bulk of the Pegs Lane site – comprising of the newer office buildings – was then to be marketed for employment use.

At that point the council committed to keep democratic functions and council meetings operating from the Grade II* listed part of the County Hall site, which includes a purpose-built council chamber.

But since then the council is reported to have received “limited market interest” from companies looking to use the office space that had been earmarked for rental or for sale.

And at a meeting of the cabinet on Monday (June 23), councillors determined that the entire County Hall site should now be marketed for ‘alternative uses’, which could include commercial, employment or residential.

Meanwhile, a new council chamber and committee room is to be created at the council’s Stevenage campus.

At the cabinet meeting, councillors heard that maintaining County Hall, as it is, was costing the council around £1m a year.

And although some film companies have hired the County Hall site as a location, councillors heard that this income was not enough to fund the site’s running costs.

Backing the proposals at the meeting, Liberal Democrat leader of the council Cllr Steve Jarvis pointed to the ongoing costs of running the site and its limited use.

He also highlighted the current practice of council staff based in Stevenage having to travel to Hertford to attend meetings.

And he said: “[…] it is clearly difficult to justify keeping a building of this size and scale for a very limited number of democratic meetings.

“I am also conscious of the fact that every time we have a meeting we ask our staff to travel here, from Stevenage, to a building that has no facilities at all. And that isn’t a good use of their time.

“Keeping a building of this sort safe and secure for such limited use is also not a good use, in my view, of the council’s resources.

“So I think that there are some significant operational, as well as financial, benefits in what’s been proposed.”

Cllr Jarvis said an appropriate use for the Grade II* listed section of the building would need to be found.

He acknowledged that a new chamber on the Stevenage campus may not be as grand as the council chamber in County Hall.

But he suggested it would be more functional and would have the “right sort of gravitas” for the meetings it held.

Backing the “common sense” proposals, executive member for sustainability Cllr Adrian England also pointed to the suitability of the existing council chamber.

Pointing to a period of hot weather last year, he said the chamber had not been “a suitable environment for holding the business that we were attempting to hold”.

He also suggested that he had been in the chamber in winter when “it gets really really cold”.

And he said: “I think we are experiencing within the frame of this building some of the aspects of climate change and global warming, which are yet another iteration of that experience.

“And to add to what has been said, the idea that we will have a cohort of officers and members scuttling around the county – to be in the right building at the right time – it just doesn’t make common sense.

“So I think it is a common sense decision to consolidate in one place.”

Meanwhile in response to a question from Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst, deputy chief executive Scott Crudgington estimated that it was currently costing the council in excess of £1m a year to run County Hall.

He pointed to the continuing costs associated with security, utilities and insurances, as well as compliance checks – such as electrical and Legionella.

And while acknowledging there had been some income from filming on the site, he stressed that this was not enough to cover the running costs.

“As far as the film and tv sector, this site continues to be popular,” said Mr Crudgington.

“But none the less we are certainly not receiving large parts of these Hollywood blockbuster budgets.

“I have to be a bit careful because the sums are commercially confidential, between us and the film-makers.

“But I can certainly say they are nowhere near the £1m cost of running this building.”

Presenting the proposals, executive member for resources and performance Cllr Chris Lucas had said the the creation of a council chamber and committee room on the Stevenage campus would cost the council an estimated £730k – with annual running costs of £81k.

He also pointed to estimates that had suggested that separating the Grade II* listed section of the building – that includes the council chamber – from the remaining building would cost around £9.7m.

Cllr Lucas told cabinet members there had been “robust discussion” of the proposals at an earlier meeting of the council’s resources and performance cabinet panel.

Debate at that meeting, he said, had included a focus on the future of council assets, inclusivity, accessibility and sustainability, as well as the finances.

And, ultimately, he said that at that meeting the decision was taken to endorse the recommendation.

That decision was a majority decision that was not backed by all members of the cabinet panel – with three councillors voting against and one abstention.