Coventry IKEA building decision made as Council borrow more money
The move to turn the building into a cultural hub was approved yesterday.
Last updated 15th Apr 2024
Calls for Coventry council to put “essential services” first have been made as it borrows more money to turn the old IKEA building into a cultural hub. Opposition leader Cllr Gary Ridley made the comments as the move was approved by councillors yesterday (19 March.)
He said many residents of the city will “find it hard to understand” the borrowing after huge service cuts last month. He also said it will add “additional burdens” to the council’s budget.
“It is very very difficult to tell people around Coventry that we’re going to turn off their lights, we’re going to charge for dustbins, we’re going to do all sorts of other unpopular things, but we’re coming back borrowing more money for this,” he told councillors.
“It’s not an essential service. And we need to prioritise essential services.” Cllr Ridley did say the group supported putting extra funding to cover the higher cost of building work for the former furniture shop.
But they tried to amend the Labour-led council’s motion to stop the council borrowing a separate amount to spend on the building’s lower floors. Cllr Ridley claimed this part “gives officers a blank cheque” for the spending “without any idea of what they’re actually going to spend that money on.”
He later claimed that it is a “significant” amount of money that would be spent “without proper scrutiny.” He added: “We are making a decision to sign off that cheque today. And we are doing so without any idea who the tenants are going to be.”
But Cllr David Welsh, who is leading on the plans, defended the move. Responding to Cllr Ridley’s comments, the Labour Cabinet Member said: “There has to be a robust business case in place for what happens to floors one and two. The money for the overall scheme won’t be agreed until the partners have agreed the overall scheme.
“We do have to move quickly and there will be commercial elements to this as well so we need to make sure we are flexible,” he added. Cllr Welsh said he will be consulted on how the sum is spent by officers, so there will be democratic oversight.
He also stressed that the scheme aims to pay for itself and is going ahead with national and local partners. The Conservative group’s amendment did not pass and the original motion was voted through by the council which has a large Labour majority.
A report for the meeting from officers recommended that money be borrowed to spend on the lower floors. Not doing this would “essentially rule out any immediate uses and associated rentals,” the report said.
The report stated it would delay work to ready the floors by putting in vital systems like sprinklers until a permanent, long-term letting is found. It added that these works would be needed in future anyway, and not doing them would slash the chances of recovering investment in the short term.
Income from the floors could offset the impact on the council’s revenue budgets from the borrowing, depending on the cost of financing it and how much they are occupied, the report said. The extra borrowing will not happen straight away but would happen “once there has been a developed and approved business case for future tenancies,” for the floors, it added.
Neither of the sums involved have been made public and a private report went to councillors yesterday.