Kettering job centre that taxpayers backed but has never opened

A temporary Job Centre officially ‘opened’ in April has still to welcome a single job-seeker through its doors after ‘issues’ delayed its use.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) signed a lease on the former Marks & Spencer building in High Street, Kettering on April 8, 2021.

After a six-month delay, refurbishment of the 42,893 sq ft store started in mid-October 2021 when Worcestershire-based construction company Speller Metcalfe started ‘enabling’ works.

The refit was to bring a new lease of life to Kettering High Street as a temporary job centre, one of more than 100 centres in UK towns and cities introduced by the DWP to deal with increased demand.

An FOI request to the DWP by this newspaper has revealed that rent and rates on the vast site has been paid for 17 months for a building that has never been used.

The DWP said: “The Department has experienced some issues with the site which have delayed its use. Those issues have now been resolved and the future use of the site is being considered.

“Refurbishment on the temporary Jobcentre in Kettering started on October, 6, 2021. The lease started on 8 April 2021.”

Once a thriving shop, the unit, owned by US firm Fortress Investment Group, had been on the market with estate agents Savills since closing in August 2018.

When on the market in 2019, the unit was given a rateable value of £249,000 a year – an indication of the rent that would be payable.

The rates were given as £125,496, a total of £374,496 potentially paid out in one year (£31,208 a month) which over the 17 months could be a total of over half a million pounds.

But the DWP refused to say how much money the refurbishment and shop fitting cost due to the information requested being commercially sensitive.

"We recognise that there is a public interest in the disclosure of commercial information relating to Kettering temporary Jobcentre.

"However, when considering arguments against disclosure there are a few factors that need to be considered.

"We need to ensure that disclosure does not compromise any existing competitive market environment that form part of the obligations within the lease such as rent reviews.

"Releasing commercially sensitive information that formed part of the negotiations, risks impacting and adversely affecting our negotiating position in the market for future negotiations across our estate, providing unfair advantage and leverage for landlord’s and operating in that open market to use our commercially sensitive information unethically to their benefit.

"Ultimately this significantly impacts the Department’s ability to secure future best value for money for the taxpayer.”

It is not known how many staff are allocated to the temporary job centre but the front doors to the store remain shut and a public side entrance leading to the Commercial Road car park has been shuttered.

Printed A4 sheets stuck in the windows are the only indication that the building is a job centre.

A staff entrance in Meadow Road has employees of G4S guarding the building with a plethora of CCTV cameras trained on the doors.

There had been limited interest in the retail space which was held on a full repairing and insuring lease until March 2027 - meaning any tenant would have to take on all of the costs for repairs and insurance until then.

It is also understood the unit has asbestos which would be costly for any developer to remove.

Asked how many staff were employed at the site a DWP spokesman said: “DWP colleagues work across sites in areas depending on the customer requirement.”

The High Street site is 0.2 miles or 322 meters from the existing Job Centre in Lower Street.