Agenda item

(a)  That the strategic outline business case attached at Appendix 2 be approved and agree to the preparation of a full business case including all six of the identified options.

(b)  That a report will be brought back to Cabinet in Spring 2024 to agree a further developed business case on the future use of Observatory House.

The Lead Member for assets introduced a report that set out the options for the future use of Observatory House to optimise benefits and value for money.  The report had been considered and discussed by the Cabinet Committee at its meeting held on 14^th September 2023.  It proposed developing the business case to enable robust, evidence-based recommendations to be made in a future report to Cabinet.

The report was supported by appendices which contained exempt information.  These were considered by the Cabinet during Part I of the meeting without disclosing any of the exempt information.

It was recognised that it was important to the Council’s recovery that the future of Observatory House be clarified.  The future decision on the Council’s occupation of the building had implications for wider parts of the Council’s improvement and recovery programme such as the Digital Strategy and Customer Access Strategy.  Several members of the Cabinet commented on the lack of due diligence carried out at the time of the original acquisition of Observatory House and emphasised the importance of ensuring a thorough and rigorous assessment of all the options to ensure best value could be delivered from such an important Council asset.

The Cabinet agreed a strong business case was essential and agreed that this would be carried out with a report back to Cabinet in the Spring of 2024 or earlier if possible.

Resolved –

(a)  That the strategic outline business case attached at Appendix 2 be approved and agree to the preparation of a full business case including all six of the identified options.

(b)  That a report will be brought back to Cabinet in Spring 2024 to agree a further developed business case on the future use of Observatory House.