Stockport to press go on £17.5m office reshuffle
Council staff are in the process of decanting from Stopford House ahead of the building’s refurbishment.
Departments will move into Fred Perry House and the town hall while an 18-month project to decarbonise and upgrade Stopford House takes place.
Space Invader is behind the designs for the revamped Piccadilly building, aimed at supporting the council’s move to a hybrid working model and converting Stopford House from a “liability to an asset”, in the words of one council source.
Once the work is complete, staff will move back into Stopford House, at which point Fred Perry House will be vacated and let to third party occupiers in order to generate an income for the council.
Improvements to the town hall will then be carried out.
The £17.5m project aims to reduce costs and increase revenue in the long term and will pay for itself in the next 20 years, according to Cllr Tom McGee, Stockport’s cabinet member for resources.
In addition, the authority hopes the rationalisation of its estate will result in higher productivity, improved staff performance, and enhanced partner working.
Stockport Council will borrow around £14m for the project. The decarbonisation work, which includes replacing windows, and installing air source heat pumps, LED lighting, will be funded through grants.
It will be challenging for the Mechanical and Electrical Building Designers to come up with the most energy saving system for both heating and ventilation of this old building that probably has poor heat retaining mass.
If gas is going to be phased out should a Geo Thermal heating system be considered that could serve several public buildings.This has been adopted for M/C University Buildings in and around the Oxford Road Campus.
Using electricity is twice the cost of gas and in the not too distant future the UK alone will not be able to generate enough electricity because of not enough Nuclear Power Stations and the UK will be held to ransome purchasing electricity from the EU.
By Paul griffiths
I really hope this will help to improve staff performance at the council.
By Unimpressed
Sounds good. I know options may be limited, and as far as brutalist buildings go it does at least have some redeeming features, but do these plans include exterior facelifting works, too?
By Tom