Plymouth City Council has signed a major deal with the agency that sets Council Tax and business rates - which now moves into one of the local authority’s buildings and trebles its city workforce.
The council bought the freehold of the empty Crownhill Court office building in 2018 through its Asset Investment Fund. A refurbishment is underway to get the premises ready to receive new tenants.
The first of these will be the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and the property will now form one of its two UK customer service centre hubs. The VOA is expected to take about half of the building later this year. A further 25,000sq m is still available for rent.
The council says the move will help safeguard the future of the VOA in Plymouth and has led to the tripling of its city workforce to more than 300 civil servants.
The VOA employs more than 3,200 staff who are responsible for compiling and maintaining lists of Council Tax bands for 26million domestic properties and the rateable value of more than two million commercial properties for business rates.
Plymouth City Council owns a vast and substantial property portfolio, from libraries, children’s centres and car parks to shops and other commercial buildings within its corporate estate.
The council said it is using historically low interest rates to acquire properties that promote the economy and generate income.
It is part of a long term strategy to be more entrepreneurial and to look at other sources of income in the form of rent, which improve the wider financial position of the council and helps protect vital frontline services.
The authority has said it is leading the way in a trend which has seen the public sector borrow cash and splash it on buildings in a bid to cover a short-fall in Government funding.
Acquisitions in the past few years include the Ballard House office block, Friary Retail Park, in a multi-million pound deal which nets it £500,000 a year in rent, Bell Park industrial estate in Plympton, and the Royal Mail Regional Mail Centre.
It is also involved in a number of “direct developments”, buying land to build industrial units and work space for companies to move into.
The council currently has an existing investment portfolio worth more than £250million. An annual gross rent roll in excess of £15million comes into the authority to help fund front line services.
Council leader Tudor Evans (Labour) said: “I am so delighted that I am finally able to tell you the work we have been doing over the past 18 months to secure, not only the VOA’s future in the Plymouth, but the tripling of its workforce creating over 300 jobs.
"The Economic Development team has literally gone the extra mile in their role to secure Plymouth as one of only two service centres in the whole UK.
“This is, of course, also a testament to the brilliance of the workforce we have here in Plymouth.
“This scale of this public sector relocation simply doesn’t happen by accident; we have had to purchase a building, undertaken a direct development and taken the commercial risk.
“A deal that not only creates quality jobs but will keep council bills down by bringing an empty property back into life."
