Senior councillors in Stafford have given the green light to buy their civic base to save taxpayers money.

A confidential report to the borough council’s cabinet asked for permission to purchase the town’s Civic Centre in a move that will save the local authority money in the future.

The building currently has a lease which has more than 50 years to run and is subject to reviews over this period which could increase the rent.  

Members of the cabinet heard that buying the building will also enable the council to bid for grants to make the property more environmentally friendly and reduce running costs - funding which is easier to access if they own the Civic Centre.

As well as borough council functions, the four-storey building houses other agencies including NHS services.

And on Thursday evening (7 November) the cabinet agreed that the purchase of the Civic Centre be recommended to the Full Council at a future meeting. Because of commercial sensitivities the report was confidential.

Leader of the council, Aidan Godfrey, said they did not want council taxpayers to be footing the bill of unnecessary costs which the authority would have no control over in the future.

He 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 be able to bid for investment that will improve the carbon footprint of the Civic Centre which would mean better energy efficiency and therefore see a reduction in long-term running costs.”

Press Release No 6164