Councillors in Stafford Borough have been given the go-ahead to buy their Civic Centre headquarters.
Proposals to purchase the town’s Civic Centre in Riverside were discussed and agreed at a special meeting last week.
The four-storey building – also home to other agencies including NHS services – has a lease with more than 50 years to run and rent is expected to increase during that time.
The council says that buying the property will save taxpayers’ money and enable it to bid for grants to make the building more environmentally friendly and reduce running costs. This type of funding is only open to the local authority if they own the Civic Centre.
Stafford Borough Council Leader Aidan Godfrey said: “We have looked very closely at the figures to see if purchasing the building was the right thing to do – and our decision was based on investing in the future.
“We want to protect taxpayers’ money and if we were to own the building, we would avoid unnecessary costs.
“We would also be able to bid for investment that will reduce the carbon footprint of the Civic Centre – and help improve its energy efficiency therefore providing a reduction in long-term running costs.”
The plans have been part of a report which was previously kept confidential because of commercial sensitivities.
