East Sussex County Council to look further at relocating from County Hall, Lewes

On Tuesday (October 15), Cllr Nick Bennett, lead member for resources and climate change, considered a report setting out potential options for the future of the authority’s County Hall campus in St Anne’s Crescent.

The report set out six potential options for the council to pursue, ranging from remaining at County Hall ‘indefinitely’ to building a new headquarters as part of a wider (possibly residential) redevelopment of the site.

Following a recommendation from officers, Cllr Bennett agreed for the council to “proceed on a phased partnership approach” — a course of action described as ‘option six’ within the report.

In essence, this approach would see the council plan to remain in County Hall until at least 2030 when it would look to relocate to Sackville House — a office building which is owned by the authority but currently leased out.

As part of this approach, the report said, the council would also 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 said 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.

Cllr Bennett said: “As you go through the options logically and dispassionately … what inexorably dawns is … that option six is the way to go and to take advantage in the meantime of any short term leases, any sales, any business opportunities that come up and then to go back again in the summer once we’ve got through those key milestones we’ve considered, particularly the one around the park authority’s re-planning.

“If we go with option six now, we’ve got the chance to look at some of the other options possibly next summer, but in the meantime we have a plan and we are going to make some money out of it.”

Before making his decision, Cllr Bennett heard how options for a more immediate redevelopment of the County Hall campus were considered to have significant “viability issues”. In their report, officers said 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.

Cllr Bennett said: “You can’t rely on County Hall creating more capital for you to play with then you would ever spend. That’s the real conundrum with this one; everyone thinks it is worth a fortune when in fact it is worth peanuts comparatively.”

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

Notably, option six had seen pushback from some committee members, who argued for more urgent action in light 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.