Deal in sight for £10m Wolverhampton fire control building no-one wants
Property?experts are in 'active discussions' with an occupier to take over a £10 million fire control headquarters in Wolverhampton that was abandoned before ever opening, it was revealed today.
Plans to open the site as a regional control centre for the fire service were scrapped before it was even finished and has never had a tenant.
Taxpayers will have to pick up its £48 million rental bill over a 25-year lease if a tenant is never found while the public purse also continues to cover its round-the-clock security and electricity.
Total running costs including rent are around £1.8m a year but the site is now being offered to other businesses for just £450,000.
The taxpayer will have to make up the shortfall if no new agreement can be reached.
The Government's Department for Communities and Local Government has brought in property consultants GVA to market the building and the company says it has found a potential occupier and hopes it can release good news in the coming months.
It comes after senior civil servant Sir Bob Kerslake admitted the centre 'was not appropriate to the needs of the country', when it was created.
It can also be revealed today that GVA used the £39,000 budget it was given by Whitehall to market the centre directly to a list of 2,500 prospective occupiers the firm agreed with the Government.
The company would however not reveal the identity, nor the sector, of the potential occupier for the site.
