Councillor to consider future of East Sussex County Council County Hall in Lewes

On Tuesday (October 15), Cllr Nick Bennett, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for resources and climate change, is expected to consider a report setting out potential options for the future of the County Hall Campus in St Anne’s Crescent.

The report sets out six potential options, ranging from keeping things as they are currently, selling the site and building a new County Hall as part of a wider (possibly residential) redevelopment of the site.

One option is favoured by officers, however, who are recommending that Cllr Bennett agrees for the council to “proceed on a phased partnership approach”. In essence, this would see the council remain in County Hall until at least 2030 when it would be able to relocate to Sackville House — a office building which is owned by the authority but currently leased out.

In a report to Cllr Bennett, a council spokesman said: “In a phased approach, the council would look to remain at County Hall in the short term until alternative council-owned accommodation becomes available at Sackville House, Lewes, at which point the council would look to relocate.

“This would also enable certain milestones to have occurred which would provide greater certainty over the variables noted above, and therefore greater knowledge of the viability of any potential development.”

As part of this approach, the report says, the council would look into “mothballing a significant section” of County Hall, relocating teams which currently rent office space elsewhere and finding outside tenants to rent unoccupied spaces within the building.

Officers say this approach would also allow the council to work with partners, such as Lewes District Council and the South Downs National Park, to develop a “wider regeneration plan” for the site.

In coming to this recommendation, officers point to viability issues with a more immediate redevelopment of the site, saying there are currently no “standout options” and that the cost of a suitable replacement County Hall would likely outstrip the market value of the site.

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The options presented to Cllr Bennett have previously been considered by the council’s Place Scrutiny Committee.

The officers’ recommendation saw pushback from some committee members, who argued for more urgent action in the face of the council’s financial pressures.

Other councillors also argued for a ‘more ambitious’ approaches, with the building of social housing in partnership with Lewes District Council or a ‘design competition’ among the suggested alternative options for the site.

The committee did not endorse any particular option, however.

As part of its discussion, the committee heard how the building costs the council around £1m per annum to run and would require additional investment (on top of this annual figure) of up to £8.4m over the next 10 years.

They also heard how the occupancy rate of County Hall had been around 45 per cent in 2019 but had fallen to just 27 per cent in the first six months of 2024.

Based on these figures, the committee heard how the council’s suggested space requirements would come to around 3,500 sqm, a significantly smaller space than the 15,000 sqm provided at County Hall.