Plans to convert disused Northampton town centre office into apartments for 'key workers' clears final hurdle

Belgrave House is to be turned into apartments.

Belgrave House, an empty office block built in the 1970s, is attached to the Grosvenor Centre and lies opposite the empty site where the former Greyfriars bus station used to be.

Northampton Borough Council (NBC) has agreed to purchase the site and redevelop it by entering into a 35-year repairing and insuring finance lease deal with Legal & General, after which NBC will be assigned the remainder of the 936-year lease for £1.

The new accommodation, which will be known as The Clock House, will be let at affordable rents to eligible households on the Housing Register. It will include 70 one-bedroom and 52 two-bedroom flats, which will be allocated to people working for key employers – in both the public sector and private sector – within walking distance of the town centre. These employers will include Northampton General Hospital, Northamptonshire Police, Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service, the new unitary West Northamptonshire Council and local retail and leisure businesses.

The office, next to the Grosvenor Centre, has been empty for a number of years.

Conservative councillors on the cabinet had agreed ‘in principle’ to the scheme back in January 2019. Since then, Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH), which manages the council’s housing stock, has been drawing up the scheme. And at its first virtual cabinet meeting last night (May 20) since the COVID-19 pandemic began in earnest, members agreed to the final rubber stamp.

Councillor Stephen Hibbert, cabinet member for housing, said: “The Clock House is well known to us. NPH are involved in the design, the planning process, the cost of the acquisition, the redevelopment and the negotiations over the terms of the finance lease. Heads of terms are agreed and all set to go subject to this evening’s approval.”

The building will be extended vertically to provide two extra storeys, and the existing brickwork will also be cleaned – with the site having been unoccupied for years. The top floor of the Grosvenor Shopping Centre car park will be upgraded to enable it to be designated to the residents of The Clock House.

Councillor Danielle Stone, the leader of the Labour group, said that the site was important for key workers. Commenting on the proposal to cabinet members, she said: “If you look at the difficulty the county council has in recruitment of important posts, we need to do something about that especially as we move into the new unitary. I think key worker housing is really important and I know the COVID-19 crisis has thrown up all kinds of issues for health workers who are living in unsatisfactory accommodation in very noisy neighbourhoods where they can’t get sleep and refresh for their next shift. I think it’s a really urgent issue.”

A CGI of how the new Clock House apartments would look.

If contracts are exchanged in July 2020, the redevelopment of Belgrave House will be able to commence in September 2020 and will take approximately 18 months to complete, though is subject to any ongoing impact from coronavirus.