Bradford Spend To Save Projects Progress

Wednesday, 2 March 2016 15:09

Work is set to start on two property schemes which cost £4 million but will its claimed save the Bradford Council money in the long term.

The Council's Executive will be asked at its meeting next Tuesday, March 8, to release the remaining £2m of a £2.75m scheme to refurbish Britannia House and Argus Chambers to enable staff to vacate Jacobs Well and move into those buildings.

This would save the Council around £750,000 a year in running costs which helps to protect frontline services and will enable staff to access their work from different locations, which in turn reduces the need for office space.

The Council is looking to demolish Jacobs Well to make way for a new public sector hub that would attract staff from other organisations. The costs of running the office space would therefore be shared, and would also bring other employers into the area.

This has a knock-on effect of boosting the number of people eating, drinking and shopping in the city centre.

Scheme 2 is for £2m to be spent on essential building works on Council properties which will include £1m of improvements to St George's Hall and repairs to City Hall roof and Shipley Library.

Both schemes are part of the Council's Property Programme - a ten year invest-to-save strategy to reduce the Council's estate and overheads.

To date the property programme has delivered more than £21m savings and by 2018/19 it is projected to have saved £37.5m. The property savings enable essential services to be further retained.

Bradford Council Leader, Coun David Green, said: "It’s really important for us to become more efficient and make savings considering the level of budget cuts we have faced and continue to face in the future.

"But the regeneration projects also contribute to making the city centre a more attractive place to work and to visit for entertainment and leisure.

"We need to provide the whole package and we have already made very good progress with the boost in numbers to City Park, the success of The Broadway shopping development and the great shows and concerts we are putting on at the Alhambra and St George’s Hall, which is very much in need of a revamp.”

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