Council agrees to buy its base to save money

Stafford Civic Centre is the council's base, and is also home to some other public services

Stafford Borough Council leaders have agreed to buy the authority's office base in a move they hope will save money.

The issue was discussed at a closed-doors meeting earlier this week, with the decision intended to prevent future expenditure on rent rises over the remainder of the Civic Centre's 50-year lease.

Buying the property would also enable the council to bid for grants to make the building more environmentally friendly and reduce running costs, the council said.

The funding would only be available to the authority if it owned the Civic Centre.

In December, the council delayed making a decision to get more information about the proposals.

As well as borough council functions, the four-storey building also houses other organisations – including some NHS services.

A council spokesperson said the meeting was held in private due to commercial sensitivities associated with the purchase of the building.

Leader of the council Aidan Godfrey 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 avoid unnecessary costs."