Steelhouse Lane police station to close
The public access facility at Aston and Edgbaston will remain until re-provisioned following public consultation. At some point in the future, both Aston and Edgbaston police bases will also be put up for sale.
Announcing the decision, Mr Jones said: “Given the fact that we have already had to save £126 million over the last four years and now face further savings of around £20 million a year for the foreseeable future, we have to make some critical decisions.
“Although there will be some costs in terms of refurbishing Lloyd House, in the longer term we can expect to make substantial savings, both in terms of maintaining the buildings themselves and the costs involved in running them. Also, the cost of operating leasehold buildings is hugely expensive.
“For both myself and Chief Constable Chris Sims, the most important thing for the people of the West Midlands is the need to keep frontline officers on the streets. The savings we can make by adopting these changes is the equivalent of 70 officers.
“Our estate has not changed in size for decades, despite huge changes to policing, including structures and the numbers of staff employed.
“The current estate is spread over more than 140 sites across the West Midlands and is inflexible and dated. We need to modernise and move to a smaller, more flexible, well maintained site, working alongside partners where appropriate.
“In addition, we currently have a number of leased bases around Birmingham city centre which are simply not cost effective. By reducing the high costs associated with these leased buildings we can plough the savings into frontline policing which can deliver protection to our communities.”
The cost of the Lloyd House renovation and closure of the admin bases, plus Steelhouse Lane, Edgbaston and Aston, will be approximately £24 million. However, this will be offset by the savings from the closure of these offices, worth approximately £17 million over five years.
Lloyd House requires over £10 million of investment and maintenance but refurbishment would be cost-neutral over six years, Mr Jones added.
