Hertfordshire County Council approves multi-million pound deal to purchase large office site

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Councillors have approved multi-million pound plans to buy offices in Hemel Hempstead – on the same day they were presented with budget plans that will require £42m of ‘savings’.

The Meadowside House premises, in Apsley – already used by more than 1000 staff – are currently rented by the county council for around £825k a year.

And on Wednesday (15 January) councillors agreed the council should take up an option to purchase the building.

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Financial details relating to the potential freehold purchase were circulated to councillors privately – and were not made public at the meeting.

Hertfordshire County CouncilHertfordshire County Council
Hertfordshire County Council

But executive member for resources and performance Councillor Bob Deering told members of the cabinet that the purchase was expected to achieve “savings”.

He said the property was “an important location” for the council that had recently come onto the market.

And he said they had negotiated what they believed to be “a good price”.

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He also pointed to advice from consultants suggesting that by purchasing the building the council would achieve savings.

And he said: “Of course we have acquisition costs, but when you balance everything out it’s, I think, quite clear that we will be saving money.”

According to an officers’ report published in advance of the meeting, the offices have been leased by the county council for a number of years.

In 2020, says the report, the council undertook major refurbishment to improve the property – consolidating staff who had occupied two neighbouring buildings into one.

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And it suggests the acquisition of the freehold is a opportunity to secure the long-term use of “a key operational asset”.

Backing the proposals, executive member for highways Cllr Phil Bibby pointed to the financial savings.

He said: “Looking at the figures, whichever way you cut it, there is a business case for us actually taking the freehold and saving on the rent in the long term. I am quite in favour of this proposal.”

And deputy leader of the county council Councillor Fiona Thomson – who is also executive member for children, young people and families – said: “This is an important location, particularly for children’s services teams in that part of the county.

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“And it really does help their work if they are going out to visit the families to come back. So I fully support this.”

The decision will not be subject to usual ‘call-in’ procedures – that allow councillors to request that a decision is reconsidered.

This was said to be because the council would be likely to suffer “financial prejudice” from a delay in implementing the decision.

But leader of the council Councillor Richard Roberts said opposition party leaders had been made aware of the proposal and that there was cross-party support.

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At the same meeting councillors backed the county council’s draft budget proposals for 2025/26, that will now be subject to scrutiny and public consultation.

Those proposals include plans for £42m of ‘savings’, the use of £3m of council budget reserves and plans to increase the county council element of the Council Tax by 4.99 per cent.

Residents can access the public consultation on the budget proposals online.

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