Plans to move Surrey County Council (SCC) to Midas House in Woking have been scrapped due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The council had planned to move from its County Hall offices from Kingston to 52,000 sq ft Woking Borough Council-owned Midas House in Goldsworth Road, Woking, during Spring 2020.
The existing Kingston offices are outside the county and, as well as reducing its space requirement, the relocation was part of the council’s Moving Closer to Residents scheme and would have meant savings of £700,000 a year.
But current tenants in Midas House have been unable to move out.
A spokesman for SCC said: “The current COVID-19 situation is having a profound effect on our Moving Closer to Residents plans.
“It will not now be possible to move the current Midas House tenants out in time, which also means we can’t get access to the whole of the building to make it suitable for our use.
“In addition, the procurement and commissioning of a contractor to carry out the necessary works to make it into a new SCC Civic Heart would just not be possible under the current lockdown constraints.
“In these circumstances it seems unlikely that we will need the capacity provided by Midas House, so it is not our present intention to proceed with its acquisition, though Woking is still our choice as the location for our Civic Heart.”
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