Sienna Court has sat empty, losing RBWM money for years, and there has been no coherent justification or explanation.
It was bought for a sum thought to be in the region of £8million under the previous Conservative administration in early 2020, and was part of discussions in the larger Nicholsons Quarter regeneration project in Maidenhead town centre. The new Liberal Democrat administration abandoned plans for a large car park due to cost.
There has been no economic use of the site since the purchase. Assuming a 5% rental yield, that represents a loss to RBWM of £400k/year or roughly £2.5million over the last six years. RBWM has also been losing substantial sums through the payment of Business Rates which could have been avoided. The total cost of dilapidation in that period is “enormous” – and officers have revealed that pigeons have done significant damage and caused widespread contamination of the interior.
Worse still there appears to be no plan. I have raised Sienna Court repeatedly in Cabinet briefings, in direct conversations with members of the administration, and in scrutiny meetings. There are so many options and RBWM chooses to do nothing at all letting the building rot and destroying value for taxpayers and residents.
A few practical options RBWM could consider instead of leaving Sienna Court empty:
- Sell it
- Rent it out as an office
- Convert to temporary accommodation with a Permitted Development scheme
Option 1 – a sale of Sienna Court may make sense. It’s certainly better than leaving it empty. Even if a sale doesn’t realise the £8million that RBWM may have spent on the purchase, it will generate a substantial capital sum that can be used to reduce debt, and remove ongoing liabilities for future dilapidations and Business Rates.
Option 2 – renting the building out would generate an income and economic benefit for the town. Increased footfall from office workers would mean more money spent in local shops and cafes, and it’s really not such a bad looking building, it could attract a big name tenant into a prime location a few minutes walk from the station.
Option 3 – RBWM is currently spending huge sums of money on temporary accommodation both within and outside the borough. There is a strong acknowledged need for more, and we have even sacrificed the new build premium on a council owned development on Ray Mill Road (St Edmund’s House), switching that to temporary accommodation. That wasn’t a good idea and most likely lost us a lot of money, but a Permitted Development scheme to convert Sienna Court into temporary accommodation would generate both social and financial value for RBWM.
This is an extract of the speech Cllr Douglas made. Watch the whole meeting here
I have asked the RBWM Cabinet to add a simple KPI to the Council Plan to track the total amount of RBWM-owned property that is currently sitting empty. The existing Council Plan aim to “optimise use of the buildings” we own is supported by any measurable targets (KPIs). These are needed to drive delivery beyond broad (vague) commitments such as to “Drive asset sales where possible”. In the absence of concrete targets, it is unsurprising that Sienna Court has been allowed to remain in this state for the first three years of the current administration.