Nearly £1 million spent on Norwich City Hall revamp
The proposals would see the grade-II listed building extended to its rear, to house a new courtyard with a hotel complex or flats.
Nearly £1m has already been spent on designs for a potential revamp of City Hall.
The proposals would see the grade-II listed building extended to its rear, to house a new courtyard with a hotel complex or flats.
It was agreed in October that Norwich City Council would set aside £750,000 to fund initial design work for the plans and an outline business case, setting out the rationale behind the project.
But a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by this newspaper revealed that spending on the project is even higher than this sum, with the total just shy of £1m at the end of last month.
The FOI response shows the council has spent £15,000 on a strategic brief, £141,000 on a strategic outline business case and spatial framework, £191,000 on further scoping work, £387,000 on designs, £202,000 on an outline business case, and £62,000 on site surveys.
These sums were spent between October 2023 and June 2025.
Green councillor Lucy Galvin has hit out at the Labour-run authority over the spending.
She said: “For too long City Hall has been half vacant, inaccessible and underused by the community it was built to serve.
“There has been a reluctance to change by the Labour council which has seen the building almost mothballed. It’s good to see plans afoot at last.
“But the ongoing confusion around changes to local government make it very difficult to be sure of value for money and this needs careful scrutiny to be sure that scarce resources are being spent wisely.”
City Hall has been the seat of local government in Norwich since its completion in 1938.
The council says the layout of the building is “outdated and inefficient”, with less than half used as workspace and the rest reserved for meetings and storage.
Under the revamp proposals, the building would be extended to the rear for office, hotel, or residential use along with a public courtyard.
The council previously said its activities would remain based at City Hall, but this is now uncertain amid plans for local government reorganisation, which could see Norfolk’s eight councils dissolved and replaced with fewer authorities.
The space behind City Hall used to be a car park, with police storage facilities underneath, but it was demolished a number of years ago after faults were found with the structure.
It was then repurposed for storing police vehicles and to house the temporary buildings the police used while Bethel Street police station was refurbished.
A spokesman for Norwich City Council said: “As part of our drive to make City Hall fit for purpose in the future and to ensure its cherished place as a much-loved public building, we will be presenting proposals in the autumn to ensure its sustainable future.
“These proposals are still being worked through and will take into account the findings of our public survey and the impact of the local government review. What is not in doubt is City Hall’s listed status and its role as a city landmark which will serve the people of Norwich and Norfolk for years to come.”