Issue - meetings

Portfolio Holder – Councillor Neil MacDonald

Executive is requested to authorise the award of a fit-out grant for the premises of the Creative Hub.

77.1.     Councillor Rudkin introduced the report highlighting that £875k had been awarded by the former New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (NALEP) to deliver a Creative Hub in Ipswich following research undertaken in 2021 that had identified this need. A thorough selection process was undertaken to identify a suitable tenant to deliver the Creative Hub and this report sought agreement for the use of the funding to fit out the former Customer Service Centre in the Town Hall for this purpose.

77.2.     Councillor Fisher noted the £750k contribution towards fit out costs and asked whether this was only for changes to the building to make the area suitable or if it would also provide items to fit out the Hub, e.g. desks, computers.
The Assistant Director for Place, Tomasz Kozlowski, commented that it was mostly for alterations to fit out the internal space, but it would include some minor equipment.

77.3.     Councillor Fisher commented that there was a number of empty town centre buildings and asked whether there was a more suitable building that would cost less to fit out so that more of the grant could be used on the Hub itself instead of on the alteration of a Council building.
The Director for Operations & Place, James Fairclough, commented that other buildings had been considered over a period of time. The NALEP funding could only be used for the delivery of a Creative Hub and if the funding was not allocated to this tenant, it would have to be returned to SCC who was now administering this funding. The Director for Operations & Place had visited the Chelmsford Hub operated by the proposed tenant and the Hub had 5 or 6 businesses working there and also offered welfare facilities.

77.4.     Councillor Fisher commented that he had seen the other Hub locations provided by the proposed tenant and added that it was surprising that there wasn’t another building where the Hub could be created and fitted out for less than £750k and asked whether the Hub had to be in a Council building.
The Assistant Director for Place commented that the alterations would not only include internal partition works with new walls and doors, but also improvement to facilities (toilets, kitchenette), provision of furniture to create the space and IT provision/connections.

It was RESOLVED:

that Executive authorises the Director of Operations and Place, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Place, Section 151 Officer, Head of Property and Head of Legal Services, to enter into a grant agreement with the proposed tenant, as identified in exempt Appendix 2 of the report, for the provision of a Creative Hub within the ex-Customer Service Centre unit in the Town Hall on such terms as he sees fit, but that meet the criteria of the grant award received from NALEP now being managed by Suffolk County Council.

Reason: To enable the Council to secure a Creative Hub in Ipswich Town Hall with a view to supporting an improved town centre and job creation.