Council looks at HQ sale after repair bill spirals

A county council is considering selling off its headquarters after bosses made a decision not to move back in.

Worcestershire's County Hall building has been completely shut since legionella bacteria were found in June - but parts have been closed since September 2023, after potentially-dangerous concrete was found.

After assessing the cost of repairs to be too expensive, the local authority said no further work would be carried out and the future use of the site would now be reviewed.

Conservative council leader Simon Geraghty said a decision on whether to sell the site would be made by the end of March.

In July, the local authority's Conservative cabinet approved plans to spend £375,000 to inspect the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac).

It also set aside £1.5m for repair work to make the building operational.

But, after exploratory work concluded the repairs would be "significantly" more expensive than that, council leader Simon Geraghty said no further work would take place.

"We will not be operating from County Hall in terms of our operational headquarters in the future… we won't be looking to go back into County Hall", Mr Geraghty said.

"Cabinet will have to make a decision as to what we do in the future… we need to review its future use, probably for disposal or for an alternative use," he said.

Following the government's devolution request that two-tier council areas such as Worcestershire submit proposals for merging services, Mr Geraghty said the building was surplus to requirements.

"We have other buildings across the county and we believe - particularly moving to a new unitary council - that we will not require County Hall," he said.

While he would not give an exact figure for the total cost of bringing the building back into use, Mr Geraghty said it was possible another organisation might look to do so in future.

But he said it was too early to say what the future use of the site might be and the cabinet would consider it in the coming weeks.

The council's draft budget report for 2025-26 – due to be discussed on Thursday - highlights the need for a sale of assets such as, potentially, their headquarters.

The authority is facing a £33.6m funding gap for the next financial year and a further £43.6m in 2026-27.

Rising costs have been fuelled by "relentless demand" in social care and home to school travel, a council report said.

Unless it secures exceptional financial support from the government, council officers say they will have to issue a Section 114 notice, which is where an authority effectively declares itself bankrupt.

Local authorities technically cannot go bankrupt, but under an S114 they cannot commit to any new spending and must come back with a new budget.

If financial support is approved by ministers, the county council would receive a "capitalisation" direction – described by the Institute for Government as a move that allows them to sell assets or borrow to fund day-to-day costs.

Nineteen councils across England secured such support in 2024-25.

"The council won't go bankrupt…what we're doing is engaging with government," Mr Geraghty said.

"We're also going to be working up plans to try and address that gap, including looking at assets and any land we own.

"Part of the plan is to be able to use capital assets to fund day-to-day expenditure, effectively buying us time to come up with a longer term plan for Worcestershire."

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