Staff working for Bristol City Council will be moved out of a huge office building later this year in a bid to save millions. The council will relocate most of its staff currently working at 100 Temple Street, a five-storey office building it bought a decade ago for £18 million.
It’s unclear what will happen to the building after council staff leave, but the offices could be sold off or leased out. Some council teams will remain in the building, including the Citizen Service Point and the Operations Centre, while others will be relocated to City Hall.
The council owns many buildings across Bristol but is planning to sell some of them, to cut costs amid huge pressure on its budget. This year, the council could raise £36 million from these sales, and save £3.5 million from spending on bills such as heating or electricity.
Read more: Revealing number of Clean Air Zone fines would be ‘too confusing’ says council
Plans to move staff out of 100 Temple Street were revealed in an email sent to staff, in which one council officer said that many staff members were now working at home some days of the week. The move to City Hall is expected to take place over the summer.
The email said: “Following a busy few months for the team, I’m now able to share an update on our proposed future model for our office estate. Subject to some ongoing discovery and engagement work, our preferred option is to move towards one ‘city wide’ central office at City Hall and three ‘locality hubs’ in North, South and East Central for teams who work with citizens in particular areas of the city.
“With the majority of office-based colleagues now adopting a hybrid approach, and in the context of our ongoing financial challenges, it makes sense to reduce the number of buildings we use for office space, while ensuring that the spaces we retain are fit for purpose and well used.
“As part of this programme, the first building where we’ll be vacating space will be 100 Temple Street, as we explore commercial opportunities for the building. Although some teams, such as the Citizen Service Point and the Operations Centre, will be remaining at 100 Temple Street, other teams will be relocated to City Hall over the summer. In preparation for this, we will shortly be re-zoning City Hall to make space for additional teams.”
Writing on the mayor’s blog, Labour Councillor Craig Cheney, deputy mayor responsible for finance, said the council had been hit by 13 years of funding cuts from the government. He added that the council had protected libraries and children’s centres, prioritised support for low-income families, and put aside money for the council’s “ambitious” house-building programme — but millions of pounds still needs to be saved from the council’s budget.
Cllr Cheney said: “The systematic defunding of the local government sector by successive governments over 13 years has left all councils facing increasing demand without the financing necessary to do all the things we used to do. After many months of work to explore the various options to reduce office space without negatively impacting frontline services, we are now in a position to take the next steps and begin delivering this much needed work.
“This approach will see us move out of a number of sites across Bristol. City Hall will continue to be the council’s main office with other buildings retained in the north, south, and east of our city to provide space for officers to work closely with people in those communities.
“These local offices of course sit alongside the network of libraries and children’s centres that we are proud to have protected across Bristol, which help connect residents with services. Final decisions on which buildings will be retained are yet to be made, but we have made a commitment to keep the Citizen Service Point on Temple Street despite other council officers moving from this office space later this year.”
