Council headquarters revamp cost rises by £1.3m

A revamp of East Renfrewshire Council’s headquarters is set to cost £1.3m more than initially estimated despite being scaled back.

Work to upgrade the Eastwood Park building had been approved last year at £4.6m, but new surveys revealed pushing ahead with that plan would now cost £7.2m.

Instead, councillors agreed with a recommendation to cut back the project — including less work to improve the council chamber — which is now estimated at £6.16m.

Council leader Owen O’Donnell, Labour said the scheme was “vitally important to extend the life” of the building by “at least 20 years”.

“To deliver the original plan in full would cost an extra £2m or so,” he added. “Given the environment we are in, given that we are going to be making budget cuts, I’m not sure it’s appropriate for us to proceed on that basis.”

Work is set to start in summer 2025 and be completed by early 2026.

Cllr Gordon Wallace, Conservative, said: “We are still where we were a year ago, we still have an entire HQ which is not fit for purpose.”

He proposed using money available to the council following a reduction in employer contributions to the Strathclyde Pension Fund to fund the full revamp.

Cllr Wallace added: “That money was going to go to pensions, which is about the welfare of our staff ultimately, so we have an opportunity here to use these funds without putting any pressure on local residents.”

However, after talks between political group leaders, councillors agreed to the reduced scheme. Cllr O’Donnell said there is “disappointment among us all that we weren’t able to deliver on the original vision of this plan from last year”.

He said officials could be asked to look at “alternatives for delivering the original vision”.

Built in 1980, the headquarters has had no “significant investment or upgrades to much of its core infrastructure since construction”, officials reported.

Fittings, such as windows and electrical infrastructure, are “beyond their design life” and “inadequate for today’s workforce needs and digital requirements”.

Last December, councillors approved plans to modernise the offices and council chambers, despite some criticism over “misplaced priorities”. The proposal aligned with a decision not to renew the lease on offices in Thornliebank from February 2026.

However, further surveys found “very substantial investment in the building’s core services infrastructure is now required”, including heating upgrades and rewiring of both the electrical power and ICT cabling.

Under the approved plan, there will be core infrastructure improvements, including ICT, as well as refurbishment of all kitchen facilities and bathroom upgrades.

Accessibility to the council chamber will be included as well as the replacement of all external opening windows. The second-floor workspace, where most staff are located, will be refurbished, although to “a lesser degree”.

Another option had been to continue with the original budget, but officials said staff would “experience very little improvement to their working environment”. Deferring the project was also suggested, with the report stating this would stop the movement of staff from Thornliebank.

Cllr Annette Ireland, independent, said: “I hate to be the person who says ‘told you so’, but I did worry and speak out about the increase in costs.”

She agreed areas of the building are “not fit for the number of staff that will be coming in once we close Spiersbridge”, but added it was a substantial spend at a “time when we are cutting back” on other projects.

Cllr Caroline Bamforth, SNP, said she was happy to agree to the recommendation having “seen some of this building and even our office… the holes in the ceiling”.

She added: “I’m glad we are scaling back on what we do in the chamber. I think the optics of doing the chamber up don’t look good when we’re making cuts.”

The council’s chief executive Steven Quinn said the chosen option allows “us to do all the infrastructure… the electrics, cabling, plumbing, windows etc across the whole building including the chamber”.

He added the council would then be able to decide whether to make “cosmetic” upgrades to parts of the building not in line for improvements at this point in future.