Not selling council HQ 'may cost taxpayer £67m'

The Reform UK-led council dropped plans to sell County Hall shortly after taking control

The decision to cancel the sale of Kent County Council's headquarters could cost the taxpayer nearly five times its mooted savings, opposition councillors claim.

Council leader Linden Kemkaran dropped plans to sell County Hall in Maidstone soon after Reform UK won control of the authority in May's local elections, claiming it would save £14m.

However, the Green Party have said work to keep the building "warm, dry and safe" would amount to £20m, with the cost of full refurbishment rising to £67m.

Deputy leader Brian Collins said the figures were "a complete fabrication and scaremongering".

The previous Conservative-led administration had proposed selling the Grade II listed building and making neighbouring council office Invicta House its base.

A proposal with Maidstone Borough Council for new, joint offices was dropped in 2021.

Kent County Council had since found an undisclosed buyer for County Hall, which has Ministry of Justice covenants connected to the prison next door, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council said it now planned to sell Invicta House instead.

The Green Party acting group leader Mark Hood said backtracking on the sale was "destroying faith in the council as a credible vendor for the building".

Difficulty negotiating a sale in future would be "leaving any successor council with an empty, boarded up, listed building with all the associated costs", he added.

He claimed that running costs at Invicta House were £1.1m but it cost twice as much to run County Hall.

The government is proposing to abolish Kent's councils and replace them with a smaller number of single-tier authorities from 2028.

Collins, of Reform UK, added that "at no time have I or any of our administration stated an intention to spend over £60m" on County Hall.