Wokingham borough council looks set to remain at its current Shute End home – at least for the next ten years.
A meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee this week is being asked to consider an update on the “Future Headquarters Provision” programme, and is being asked to approve the move to its decision-making executive committee for a final decision.
A draft report recommends retaining Shute End as the council’s main headquarters for a further 10 years, to 2036, managing the building through planned maintenance and compliance investment, and pausing further substantive feasibility work on the future headquarters programme unless directed by the executive.
Following initial feasibility work in September 2023, the executive agreed in principle that the council should review its office accommodation provision, including opportunities for relocation of its headquarters from Shute End, and approved further feasibility work.
In January 2025, the executive considered the latest feasibility work and agreed that the remaining viable options for future headquarters provision were: (a) Full refurbishment of Shute End; (b) Relocation to 28-38 Peach Street, Wokingham; or (c) Leasehold or freehold acquisition of a building within the borough
The draft executive report considers the latest influences on consideration of future headquarters provision, namely Local Government reorganisation, Fairer Funding Review and Modern Workforce.
Taking into account these influences, the report recommends the option to retain Shute End as headquarters on a managed basis for 10 years, aligned to the medium-term financial plan.
Retaining Shute End will avoid significant new capital expenditure and enables removal of £1 million per annum previously earmarked for future headquarters feasibility – a £3 million saving over three years). However, it requires continued revenue costs of circa £1.03 million per year and capital investment of around £800,000 over four years to operate the building and maintain building safety and compliance
If executive approve the recommendation to stay at Shute End for 10 years, then consideration needs to be given to the future of the 28-38 Peach Street site, the former Marks & Spencer shop, during this period in the context of ensuring the council is making best use of, and securing best value, from its assets and complying with its statutory, including health and safety, and landlord responsibilities.
To this end, options and recommendations for the future use of 28-38 Peach Street will be presented and considered by a community and corporate overview and scrutiny committee in June 2026.
Current desk capacity at Shute End is 405.
The report noted that visual surveys and manual count of occupancy continues to be undertaken daily, and in May 2025 a two-week occupation survey was undertaken by an external company.
The findings of this formal survey corroborated with the daily counts and ensures we have a good picture and understanding of current usage of the building.
The daily observed average occupation from the last six months is 222. Average daily occupation at January 2025 was 193, so this represents an increase in daily occupation levels over the past 12 months.
A total of 163 significant one-off events, such as Ofsted inspections and the colleague conference, have brought the occupation rate over 300 on a handful of days.
