North Northamptonshire Council plans to exit half of its offices including Swanspool House in Wellingborough and Sheerness House in Kettering

Council staff could leave historic Swanspool House in Wellingborough as well as other key locations during the forthcoming year.

North Northamptonshire Council has announced plans to potentially move out of six bases across the area as it consolidates its estate three years after it was formed to replace the borough and county councils.

Staff will move out of the RCI building at Kettering Venture Park; Sheerness House in Meadow Road, Kettering; Saunders Close, Kettering; West Glebe Day Centre, Corby; the Tithe Barn Offices, Wellingborough and Swanspool House, Wellingborough.

The future of NNC’s base in Grosvenor House in Corby is uncertain, with staff remaining in place for now while a ‘possible exit’ is considered. It’s described as an ‘eyesore’ in an NNC report.

Workers will stay at the Corby Cube; Deene House, Corby which has a lease until 2060; the former Kettering Borough Council municipal offices in Bowling Green Road which are said to instil a sense of civic pride; the William Knibb Centre in Kettering and the former East Northamptonshire Council offices at Cedar Drive in Thrapston.

The council will look for a new Wellingborough site to make sure that they maintain a presence in the town – but they have not yet decided where it will be.

The council says that it will mean more ‘hybrid’ and home-working.

Money saving

Leader Cllr Jason Smithers (Con, Oundle) said: “Bringing together five legacy organisations is a massive challenge as there’s so much to consider, especially as we need to continue to provide our business as usual services in tandem.

“Rationalising and investing in our buildings will help us deliver better services - we need to be thinking more as ‘one council’ and this strategy will help us to do just that.”

The council formed its asset rationalisation & use scrutiny panel in 2022 – made up of five Conservatives and one Labour member – to look at how best to use its estate. Their first job was to look at the office accommodation. They visited buildings to take a look at how each was being used.

Their group came up with a series of proposals behind closed doors that were last night (Monday, March 25) discussed in public for the first time at the council’s Place and Environment Scrutiny Committee. Key documents were only published hours before the meeting to ensure that staff working in the locations were briefed before members of the public.

The panel found that many offices were not being used efficiently. It’s hoped their proposals should help the authority save money in a climate where many councils have failed to balance the books in recent years. NNC says that the council’s services and directorates will now be able to work together, rather than operating at its ‘legacy’ locations.

What’s the plan for each building?

Many of the buildings are well-loved by local people and there is likely to be some community pushback.

Historic Swanspool House was gifted to the people of Wellingborough in 1919 and it has been at the heart of the town’s democracy for decades. The panel said that the building was ‘underutilised’ and in a ‘poor state of repair’. They say it’s unsuitable for offices but could switch to ‘community use’.

The RCI Building, in Kettering, was bought in a secret deal for £4.35m by Kettering Council in 2019 as a money-spinner. But NNC office workers moved in there in 2022. Now it’s recommended they move out because the office could provide an income stream for the council.

Sheerness House in Meadow Road is said to be in ‘poor condition’ and it’s recommended that it site could potentially be sold for housing. A plan to convert the run-down five-story office block came to nothing in 2016.

Numbers 94 and 96 Saunders Close in Kettering is said to be in a very poor condition and number 96 is already empty. The buildings need refurbishment or demolition. It’s recommended that the council exits the buildings.

The former West Glebe Day Centre in Forest Gate road in Corby is used as office space and the panel said it could either sold for redevelopment or re-used by the Children’s Trust.

Tithe Barn office block in Wellingborough has structural issues and a reinforced concrete frame, which has a limited shelf-life.The panel says it has residential or commercial potential, to possibly encompass neighbouring Croyland Hall and the abbey. It recommends that the council should exit the site.

Theiconicformer Corby Council HQ Grosvenor House in the heart of Corby town centre is described by the panel as an ‘eyesore’. But it holds a special place in the hearts of people in Corby as the former Strathclyde Hotel, in which many Scottish incomers spent their first night in the town. The panel says its consideration as a new community centre will limit its use for 25 years but say that staff will remain there for now – with a plan to produce a business case to exit the building.

What was said at last night’s meeting?

Committee chair, councillor Graham Lawman (Con, Hatton Park), said: “I was able to go on a couple of visits and it was quite stark the under-utilisation of the offices at Bowling Green Road, there were twenty or thirty computers in there and only one person.

"Obviously Swanspool House is a difficult conundrum because it’s not really fit for office or commercial use. It was a house and it still looks like that.

"It has to be community use because of the way it was given to the town and there would be considerable concern if a community use wasn’t found.”

Cllr Mark Pengelly (Lab, Lloyds) said that several people in Corby had already taken issue with the use of the word eyesore and that there was a substantial income from the shops on the rear floor of Grosvenor House.

He said that the Towns Fund project to spend £2m for a community room inside Grosvenor House had already begun. He said money from selling the other sites could be spend doing up the building.

He added: "With regard to some of the sites we’re selling off, I would hope that what we would do is consider whether they could be used for council housing. Sheerness House could be converted into flats. West Glebe could also be used for housing and we could make a lot of money on that and also put council properties on it.”

There was discussion on where the council could have a presence in Wellingborough. Cllr Val Anslow (Con, Croyland and Swanspool) suggested the library might be suitable.

So what happens now?

At last night’s meeting, Assistant Director for Assets & Environment Jonathan Waterworth said: “Because they’re (the buildings) being reviewed it doesn’t mean they’ll instantly be sold. There’s a process we go through using our asset disposal policy. There’s lots of different considerations we go through before we consider an asset surplus to requirements and it’s sold.”

He said that the buildings would always be considered for alternative council use before being disposed of.

The plans will now be further developed and staff and unions will be able to give their opinions in the coming weeks. A final decision will be made by the council’s executive.

The panel will now start looking at the remainder of the council’s portfolio, including its commercial properties.