CASH-STRAPPED council chiefs are proposing to spend £150,000 upgrading offices, including £2,700 on art.
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Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council would get a further £50,000 for the project from the taxpayer funded West Midlands Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership.
The scheme, for council HQ in the town centre, includes £2,700 on ‘digital print’ and wall coverings. Moving a ‘tea point’ will cost £5,000.
The council said the changes would be piloted to the ‘the latest office design and layout standards’ and test new working practices, including seven staff to ten work stations.
If rolled out through the council then similar moves would save cash by concentrating staff in less space, it said.
It comes as the authority consults residents on how it should cut 10 per cent from a £150m budget in the light of a public spending squeeze.
It has already announced plans to increase OAP day centre costs to save £131,000 and close a care home and homes for people with learning disabilities.
Council leader Councillor Ian Hedley said last month: “The council is facing difficult times and we are going to have to make large savings.”
Bosses visited councils in Newham and Islington, London, as part of the design process for the new offices. Work would begin in January for an April opening.
A council report said: “It is important to complete the project as quickly as possible in order to maintain the momentum of the council’s new ways of working strategy and to demonstrate the viability and benefits of the new office design and working arrangements to staff at the council and its partner organisations.”
It said the move would free up offices in Poplar Road by moving staff to the new offices.
This would bring in £13,000 rent a year or £425,000 if sold.
If similar schemes are rolled out then the council says it will save £180,000 a year as space is rented out and offices elsewhere are not used.
