Slough council agrees sale of former St Martin's Place headquarters

Slough Borough Council has agreed to sell its former St Martin’s Place headquarters, with options ‘on the table’ to potentially lease-back the building long-term and use it for temporary accommodation in the future.

The three-storey building, at the junction of Bath Road and Montem Lane, has been empty since 2020 when the last council staff moved out following the council’s move to a new headquarters in Windsor Road.

Slough Borough Council declared the building ‘surplus to requirements’ in January 2023.

The cash-strapped borough said the building costs the council £500,000 a year in business rates, security and upkeep.

Real estate firm Avison Young has been handling the bidding process for the property on behalf of the council since February.

According to a report discussed by councillors on Monday (December 15) at a Slough cabinet meeting, final offers which ‘exceed the latest valuation’ of St Martin’s Place, including one from the council’s preferred bidder, have since been put forward.

At the Observatory House meeting, councillors agreed to sell its former headquarters – with the final terms still due to be negotiated.

Once the sale is complete, the council will continue to have conversations with the unnamed bidder about a potential long-term lease-back to turn St Martin’s Place into 51 temporary accommodation units.

Councillor Robert Stedmond (Con, Cippenham Green), the council’s cabinet member for temporary accommodation and housing, said the units would be a ‘big help’ in easing the temporary accommodation pressures Slough has been facing.

Council leader, Councillor Dexter Smith (Con, Colnbrook and Poyle), said if this demand continues when the redevelopment is finished, different opportunities would be ‘on the table’, including the potential lease-back of the building to the council.

According to a cabinet report, if a lease-back agreement is not reached between the council and the prospective developer, St Martin’s Place could be redeveloped into 85 one and two-bedroom flats.

These would not be large enough to serve as temporary accommodation units, the report added.

Cllr Smith said the council initially considered moving back into St Martin’s Place and leaving its multi-million pound Observatory House headquarters.

But the council decided that remaining at its current headquarters would be more beneficial for the cash-strapped local authority because of the high upkeep costs for St Martin’s Place.

Cllr Smith added: “I just wanted to emphasise that it’s a staggering amount of money that has been going out [on upkeep and security]. I don’t quite know how  [St Martin’s Place] was allowed to be left in this limbo land for so long by the previous administration.”

Cllr Gurcharan Manku (Con, Langley and St Mary’s) agreed that this is a ‘substantial sum’ the council can get ‘off its hands’ by selling St Martin’s Place.