County Hall staff to relocate to Stevenage

Plans to relocate county council staff from Hertford to Stevenage were approved at a meeting of the Council's Cabinet on Monday 10th July.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of hybrid working patterns, County Hall has been underutilised, with an average occupancy rate of just 18%.

A review in to the use of County Hall came to a number of conclusions:

The size, age, and listed status of some parts of the site restrict and make it challenging to modernise County Hall. Analysis suggests that it would cost the Council £48 million to re-design County Hall to better suit business needs and the new ways of working.

Sustainability improvements have been made to some parts of the mechanical and electrical systems, and solar panels have been installed. However, the listed status of Old Building restricts further sustainability improvements.

The size of the site means significant investment would be required to improve environmental performance. There are opportunities for alternative uses of the County Hall site that could deliver benefits to both the council and Hertford as a town.

Democratic services, meetings and councillor support staff will continue to operate at County Hall.

The move will save the council up to £3m, with future options for the remainder of the site invetsigated. This will involve East Herts District Council, as the local planning authority, to determine the best course of action, including if any marketing is required to test the most appropriate future use for the remainder of the site. A separate business case will be brought forward to the council's Cabinet with a preferred option for the remainder of the site.

Cllr Bob Deering, executive member for resources and performance said: "In so far as this building requires expenditure to maintain it, it's not good use of taxpayers money to maintain a building of this size just to facilitate a relatively small population of staff. So it is very important we address that and we don’t run away from it.

"So the view taken and the approach that is intended is that we will relocate the vast majority of staff who have been based here to Stevenage - our existing facilities at Stevenage."

"There clearly will be some disruption involved in that including to staff that live relatively locally to County Hall,"

"But, of course, by definition in this day of hybrid working and working from home, that disruption may not be as much as it would have been in previous years."

Liberal Democrat and Labour group leaders have given a cautious welcome to the plans.