Croydon Council’s recent office accommodation project focused around its administrative Headquarters at Taberner House, Park Lane.
In 2003, the Council determined that its 60s built 18 storey office building was unsuitable in functionality and offered a poor working environment for its staff. As a result, an assessment for complete refurbishment was undertaken.
The resultant £38 million estimate to refurbish offered insufficient value for money and therefore, in 2003 a ‘short term’ office accommodation strategy was undertaken to
improve the building in a more cost efficient
manner.
Key Aims
The key aim of the project was to increase the functionality of Taberner House. This would be done by:
Redesigning each floor to provide an open plan environment
Eliminating individual offices
Providing increased meeting room and breakout space
This was facilitated by the introduction of:
Hot-desking
A clear working desk policy
A marked improvement in ICT capability
The first business case aim was to increase the occupancy in Taberner House, following the closure of other administrative buildings across the Borough, providing capital receipts and revenue savings. The second aim was to take advantage of measures that would improve the sustainability of the building. For example, energy efficient lighting, water saving measures and recycling facilities.
3. Key Challenges/Major Issues
This was seen as a transformation project and as such there were challenges in coordinating the overall communication and consultation between key stakeholders, such as Asset & Facilities Management, Finance, HR & OD and ICT.
The Council rented out decant accommodation during part of the programme, and overall, the work was carried out within an almost fully occupied building. Moving large numbers of staff between floors was an extremely demanding and logistical exercise, which required a full time dedicated resource to ensure its overall success.
4. Key Benefits/Successes
The ‘property’ focused short term accommodation strategy was successful in providing a higher quality working environment. The building is now better utilised and the working environment has been improved via flexible working and new meeting rooms. A ‘working from home’ policy is also being piloted in the Revenue and Benefits department.
5. Lessons Learnt
Senior Management buy-in is crucial to success
Importance of clear two-way communication
The need to produce a robust consultation plan
In conjunction with the above, a dedicated project management resource was found to be essential, part of which, was to ensure that partners across the organisation worked in unison, i.e., Contractor, ICT, FM Providers and the Council.
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