Portsmouth City Council 'needs to leave Civic Offices as soon as possible'

Speaking at Tuesday's meeting of the council, Lib Dem Gerald Vernon-Jackson said the city centre offices were ‘no longer fit for purpose’ and that failing to relocate would also mean the council misses its 2030 net zero emissions target.

‘It is a black glass building where you can't open the windows and there’s no air con,’ he said. ‘It’s an unpleasant place to work and...we will not hit our target for going net zero carbon dioxide if we stay.

‘We need to get out. We need a much smaller place. It needs to be in the city centre because we need to support shops but we need to start doing some work about getting out of the civic as soon as we can.

‘We need to grasp the nettle and say that the Civic Offices, as they now are, with all the things that we've learned during Covid, do not work for the city council.’

His comments were made in an amendment put forward to a motion proposed by Conservative councillor Ryan Brent raising concerns that home working meant the building was no longer providing value for money.

Cllr Brent said that the number of council officers based there was between five and 10 times lower than before the pandemic with the cost of the building per on-site employee having risen from between £700 and £800 to as much as £8,000.

‘Capacity is reduced but we are also now spending more on cleaning and...we’re also spending more money on refuse collection and disposal,’ he said, adding that gas and electricity bills had also risen by £250,000 a year.

‘We are spending more, we are generating less and we are running a reduced service,’ he added. ‘I do not find this to be an acceptable situation.’

His motion calling for a report on future options for the site and a full financial review, combined with the addition of Cllr Vernon-Jackson's amendment, was backed by councillors.

Lib Dem cabinet member Steve Pitt said he ‘detested’ the building ‘with every fibre of his being’ and that it ‘destroys the centre of the city’.

He said work to move out of it had been discussed more than a decade ago and that ‘grown-up conversations’ now needed to be had about its future.