East Sussex County Council is weighing plans to sell, keep, demolish or redevelop its main offices in Lewes, councillors have heard.
On Monday (September 23), East Sussex County Council’s Place Scrutiny Committee discussed a report setting out potential options for the future of the County Hall Campus in St Anne’s Crescent.
The report set out six potential options, ranging from keeping things as they are currently to building a new County Hall as part of a wider (possibly residential) redevelopment of the site.
Other options included adapting the existing building in a way which would allow other uses to take place within it (again with the possibility of a residential use).
The report also put forward two options for the council to outright sell the site and relocate its offices to either Sackville House (a council-owned property) or to another, so far unidentified, commercial property in Lewes.
The report noted how the Sackville House option would not become available until 2030 at the earliest, as the council currently leases the building out to other parties. Even so, officers in the meeting suggested that the committee could consider making this their preferred option to take forward.
In making this suggestion, officers cautioned that the redevelopment options could pose viability issues, primarily because of some of the site’s physical drawbacks (such as its limited access and slopes).
But the Sackville House suggestion saw pushback from some committee members, including Labour councillor Chris Collier, who said: “Of the options you have put forward, I think the option you have put forward as the primary option … is the only one that is not an option.
“We have just had a conversation where we spoke about the [financial] position of the council. The council has a balance sheet which has in it some assets and on the other side we have got huge demand.
“I guess the problem I’ve got is that my starting point wouldn’t be the same as your starting point. Your starting point is about … the use of the building and staying in Lewes … my starting point would be ‘how can we use this asset to reduce the cost of demand on revenue or increase revenue.”
In a similar vein, Liberal Democrat councillor David Tutt questioned whether the council would be better off looking into relocating outside of Lewes.
Cllr David Tutt (Lib Dem) said: “For me the answer to ‘do we need to maintain this building?’ is a no brainer; we don’t.
“The concern I have about the report is what I feel is missing … [the report says] the council wishes to maintain a County Hall based in Lewes. I apologise if I missed it somewhere but I don’t remember that question ever being posed to members of the council.
“When I was first elected to the council in 1981, Lewes was a very sensible place for County Hall to be, it was very central [and] of course we had Brighton and Hove. If you look at a map of East Sussex now and you say ‘where would we base our main county offices?’ you would look at maybe Hailsham [or] Heathfield; you wouldn’t look at Lewes which is right out on the periphery.”
Some councillors argued for a ‘more ambitious’ approach, with the building of social housing in partnership with Lewes District Council or a ‘design competition’ among the suggested alternative options.
Other councillors took a contrary view, however, arguing these alternative approaches (and redevelopment more generally) could pose significant challenges.
Concerns were also raised about the county council relocating outside of Lewes, saying such a move could result in recruitment challenges.
On this point, Cllr Phillip Lunn (Con) said: “Whether it is Hailsham or Heathfield I would say forget it; talk to the local councils there about how easy it is to convince their people to come in.
“Coming from West Sussex to Lewes is a piece of cake; you can get here by train. But to get further east is not that easy.
“I’ll give you one example about somebody who had a bright idea about moving, it is a little company you may have heard of called Vodafone.They had a brilliant idea to close down in Cardiff and build an all-singing all-dancing call-centre in Methyr Tydfil.
“They couldn’t find anyone to work there and they had to close it down. It was cheap as chips, so to speak, but they couldn’t get the staff.”
Ultimately, the committee chose not to specifically endorse any of the six options put forward in the report, choosing to simply pass their comments on to the lead member before further consideration of the matter next month.
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As part of its discussion, the committee considered the results of an asset review, which the council had commissioned from consultants Inner Circle Consulting (ICC).
The consultants reported that the building is significantly under-occupied and had been even before the changes to office working brought about by the covid pandemic.
According to the report, the occupancy rate of County Hall had been around 45 per cent in 2019. The latest figures, based on the first six months of 2024, show an occupancy rate of just 27 per cent.
Based on these figures, the report said the council’s suggested space requirements would come to around 3,500 sqm, a significantly smaller space than the 15,000 sqm provided at County Hall.
The report also said the building costs the council around £1m per annum to run and would require additional investment (on top of this annual figure) of up to £8.4m over the next 10 years.
