WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP
PRESS NOTICE
14th April 2011
WESTMINSTER COUNCIL TO CO-HABIT WITH PICKLES AND SHAPPS
Cash-strapped Council to move to Communities Department HQ
Westminster City Council is planning to move before Christmas into the top six floors of Eland House, the Communities and Local Government HQ, to share offices with Government Ministers Eric Pickles and Grant Shapps. This latest development follows the Council's decision to cut £60 million from its budget of the next two years. Since 2008 the Council's reserves have crumbled by £60 million from over £70 million to just £11 million.
Westminster Council's Chief Executive Mike More has confirmed to Labour Councillors that the Council is planning to move from its 19 storey City Hall location at 64 Victoria Street;
"We are looking at this option although there are still a number of points of negotiation which at this stage make it uncertain whether there will be any "deal".......The variables in any deal would be the compensation (reverse premium) in leaving here; the comparative rent; the comparative running and FM costs. Any deal would need to be financially advantageous to the city council. These are all subject to on-going discussion.....I can confirm that if we were to do a deal we would look to avoid a move in 2012."
The Council also confirmed
"If we move to Eland, Council committee meetings will be held in the meeting rooms they have on the ground floor......These meeting rooms have separate access from a side entrance so security can be managed better."
The Westminster move to Eland House comes in the same week as the CLG announced that it will lose roughly 700 posts from its current 2,200.
Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said;
"The Conservatives obviously believe that this is a marriage made in heaven. But what happens when the Conservatives lose the next General Election? I doubt if the next Labour Secretary of State would want to share offices with Shirley Porter's successors. This is a risky move by Westminster and could end up in tears, with the Council homeless on the streets around Victoria."
"Westminster is so strapped for cash that it can no longer afford to pay the rent for a home of its own and has to go cap-in-hand to its friends in Government for somewhere to live. It's a good job Westminster Council is not dependent on Housing Benefit or the Council would be forced to relocate out of London like many of its poorer residents".
ENDS
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