A Council-owned office block deemed “loss-making” after the Council turned away new tenants for five years is set to go up for auction.

The Wansdyke Business Centre in Midsomer Norton will be up for auction on November 21 with a guide price of £300,000. The 19-unit building is advertised as having an estimated rental value of £75,000 if fully let.

But, in March, Bath and North East Somerset Council said they were making the decision to sell it off because it was “loss-making” and had required a subsidy. When councillors called-in this decision to be scrutinised before a council panel in April, a council cabinet member admitted that they had not taken on any new tenants in five years since the council had taken over the running of the building from Business West.

Councillor Colin Blackburn, who led the call-in, said at the meeting: “This has been a five year plan to sell off the family silver.” Meanwhile councillor Shaun Hughes, who rented an office in the building for his business called the council’s management of the building “disastrous.”

But after a short debate behind closed doors — something allowed if councillors pass a motion that the public interest would be better served by keeping commercially sensitive information private — the panel voted to dismiss the call in and allow the sale to proceed unchallenged.

Mr Hughes was one of the last two tenants left in the building when he moved out in July due to the council’s plans to sell it, and said that he had approached the council about buying the building himself to keep it going as a business centre. He told the local democracy reporting service that the business centre had “performed a vital function” by offering serviced office space to new businesses in the local area, allowing them to stay local.

He criticised the council’s refusal to accept any new tenants and questioned the logic behind selling it. He said: “There’s flaws in their argument, I believe, with the costs. Personally, I believe it was capable of being financially self-sufficient as a serviced office space.”

The move to sell off the centre also comes as the council is aiming to create more employment space to bring jobs back to the area on the other side of Midsomer Norton. The council is progressing plans to allow companies to develop the Somer Valley Enterprise Zone — covering fields off the A362 opposite the Old Mills industrial estate and near the batch “volcano.” 

But the council’s cabinet member for economic and cultural sustainable development Paul Roper said: “The sale of the long leasehold for the Wansdyke Business Centre won’t result in any loss of employment floorspace. The centre was inherited in 2018 with tenants on differing lease terms and rents, and the council was unable to take on new tenants until a full review of the centre’s financial viability had been completed.

“Following this review, we took the decision to return the centre to the local market through disposal. The council remains committed to providing employment space in the area – as is demonstrated by our plans to develop the Somer Valley Enterprise Zone (SVEZ) that will create significant numbers of jobs.”

Wansdyke Business Centre  — officially being sold as Midsomer Enterprise Park Units 22 & 23 — is lot 516 in a remote auction by Savills on November 21. It is being sold as a long leasehold of 999 years from September 15, 1993.

The lot listing for the business centre states: “The property would suit continuation of its current use as a business centre, with a number of local occupiers requiring surplus office space. Alternatively the property could be converted to provide industrial/workshop space similar to the surrounding use (subject to obtaining requisite consents).”

LDRS, John Wimperis