Council to buy its York House base for £5.6m

Leicester City Council has announced plans to purchase the Granby Street property that is currently home to its customer service centre.

The five-storey York House building, at 91 Granby Street, has been home to the customer service centre since the council vacated its New Walk Centre headquarters in 2014. It is also the base for the city’s area traffic control centre, and provides office space for other council teams.

The building is leased by the council on a 10-year term to 2023, with a current annual rent of £220,000.

Now the Council plans to buy York House outright for the sum of £5.6milllion. This will secure the future for the building as a council base, result in significant long-term savings for the council and pave the way for further investment in improving the services based at York House in coming years.

As a result of moving the customer service centre into the building, the council has invested around £2m in the property over the last three years.

City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “We have already made significant investment in York House and the relocation of our customer service centre has been very well received.

“It is important that we continue to invest in improving the services based there, including our area traffic control centre.

“Buying the building will give us the confidence to do that and help save us significant annual rental costs.

“This is an important building for the council, and for this part of the city centre. By demonstrating our long-term commitment to the area in this way, we can also help attract further investment into the many important and attractive buildings that Granby Street boasts.”

The planned purchase will be paid for through the council’s £30m investment opportunity fund, which was established in February 2017.