Wokingham Borough Council offices could be sold to be flats

Councillors approved the borough's local plan last month, which sets out how more than 11,000 homes will be delivered across Wokingham by 2040.

While thousands of homes were approved for Shinfield and Arborfield, the plan also included the potential to sell Wokingham Borough Council's Shute End offices to become around 100 flats.

Although selling of the building, as well as other council assets, was taken by the executive last year, it’s inclusion in the local plan means that it can actually go ahead.

If it does, it will make the money go back into the authority’s own budget – which could help fund other projects, council leaders have said.

The News has been speaking to the different parties in the chamber to understand whether they support selling the offices, and what they would like to see happen to the building if it does.

During a lengthy full council meeting on September 19, ex-borough councillor Andy Croy claimed in a public question that ‘any councillor who votes for the local plan is effectively ascending to the sale of this building for flats’.

Parts of the building have been council offices since 1939, used for various local government organisations over the decades. The bulk of the building was added in 1988.

Speaking in the chamber, the former borough ward member for Bulmershe and Whitegates said: “This room is the heart of local government in our borough and a source of considerable civic pride.”

In response the leader of the council Stephen Conway said that he appreciated Mr Croy’s ‘romantic attachment’ to Shute End, and that a decision on where to move to would be taken early next year.

An executive report from September 2023 said that the council’s assets – including Shute End, the former M&S building and Gray’s Farm, would be worth nearly £42 million. It said if included in the local plan, the assets would help the council achieve housing delivery targets, obtain optimal land value and promote affordable housing.

Speaking to the News, Councillor Conway said the potential office move was down to the current building being ‘very poorly designed’, which was ‘costing a lot to run’.

If remaining at Shute End, the council would have an ‘enormous’ bill to make sure the building was up to energy efficient standards, according to Cllr Conway.

Centre right: Leader of the Council, Stephen Conway (Image: Wokingham Liberal Democrats)

Reflecting on Mr Croy’s question, the Liberal Democrat explained: “I don’t think this is about saving money or making money.

“Staying where we are will involve a lot of expenditure. Whatever is made [in selling Shute End] will certainly have the be ploughed into the cost.”

One of the potential new sites is the former Marks and Spencer’s store on Peach Street, which the council bought in 2017.

But leader of the conservative opposition in WBC Pauline Jorgensen warned that the council ‘are jumping the gun quite a lot’.

Councillor Jorgensen said the M&S site would be ‘completely inappropriate’ because it has limited parking, and no formal meeting room.

She explained: “They need to start at the beginning, which is talk about what sort of building they need for the council, rather than go the other way around.”

Centre front: Pauline Jorgensen, leader of the Wokingham Borough Council Conservatives (Image: Wokingham Liberal Democrats)

The member for Hillside said her party were ‘not particularly’ against the council HQ moving or Shute End becoming flats, but that ‘the important thing is that we maintain the historic centre of Wokingham’.

‘The Shute end bit of Wokingham is very historical,’ Cllr Jorgensen said, ‘I wouldn’t want to see the façade there and the area ruined by something out of character’.

But some Labour members of the council are against it being sold.

Councillor Alex Freeney explained: “Ultimately, we don’t want to see the council offices sold at all. As Andy Croy said in his question, it’s a source of civic pride.

“But if it’s going to be sold, and it looks like it is, we’d rather it be sold as council flats rather than luxury apartments.”

Centre: Councillor Alex Freeney (Image: Wokingham Liberal Democrats)The member for Loddon argued that in this way, it would still be within the council’s remit while also serving for the community’s ‘social benefit’.

Councillor Freeney said: “We have a tiny council housing roster [in Wokingham], we have such a massive waiting list and at the moment.

“I think the chances of some of the most valuable land in the borough being sectioned off for council housing is highly unlikely but there would be huge social advantages to it.”

While parties weigh in with their opinions, no formal decisions have been made – it still remains only a possibility that the council offices could be sold.

Council leader Stephen Conway said there is also a possibility for money to be spent to maintain the current site, too.

Whatever may happen, Cllr Conway says that a decision is needed in the ‘relatively near future’.