Weca signs new office deal costing £200,000 a year more in rent

The West of England Combined Authority (Weca) has been criticised for moving to "lavish" new offices, at an estimated cost of £8m over 10 years.

The landlord of its current headquarters near Temple Meads in Bristol said the organisation had to leave by December 2022.

Weca has now signed a deal to take over a four-storey complex in Redcliffe.

Its new location in the centre of Bristol is £200,000 a year more than it currently pays in rent.

Ben Burton, South Gloucestershire Council cabinet member, said the £8m figure is the total cost for Redcliffe Street over 10 years, including rent, running costs and other expenditure, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

He added that the rent hike - from £500,000 to £700,000 a year - could not be justified while local bus services continued to face cuts.

Mr Burton said the local authority had offered Weca a whole floor of its main offices in Yate, next to the new park and ride, and a short walk from the train station, but that the offer was snubbed because of a "snobbish attitude" towards the town from a "sneering metropolitan-based elite".

The combined authority comprises of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset councils, and is led by metro mayor Dan Norris.

Regional leaders said it was "essential" to be based in Bristol to recruit and retain staff because more than 90 per cent of its employees lived in the city area and most commuted by public transport or active travel.

Mr Burton, cabinet member for corporate resources, said: "It is absurd that these proposals would recommend wasting such a massive amount of public money on expensive new offices when there are much more viable and sensible options that should be considered and buses in our region that could be saved by this investment.

In response to his criticism, West of England Labour mayor Mr Norris said: "Where staff are based is a matter for civil service bosses who are duty bound to take into account value for money, that over 90 per cent of the staff concerned currently live in Bristol, the commuting patterns across the West of England, and that most existing staff use public transport or walk and cycle to work."

The intention is to sub-let some of the space, saving the authority £168,000 a year.

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