THE city council is set to take out a £90 million mortgage to buy its landmark headquarters – but insists it will save taxpayers millions in the long run.
Buying the Waverley Court HQ in East Market Street is set to save the authority more than £37 million by replacing rent repayments with mortgage payments which will be cheaper long-term.
Although the move is guaranteed to raise eyebrows at a time
when the council is having to put major projects on hold, the council insists buying the building is the best thing to do.
Waverley Court, which opened in November 2006, has only become available for the council to buy from owners Norwich Union Life and Pension Fund (NULAP) because of the current economic conditions.
The total purchase of the building, including fees, is £91.27m, which will cost the council £6m per year over a 28-year period.
The authority is currently paying just over £5m per year in rent, but this is due to go up to £6m by 2011 and up to more than £7m by 2021.
Council leader Jenny Dawe stressed that "no new money" will have to be found to finance the £91 million purchase.
She said: "For a mortgage which is less than one per cent of our annual budget we can save tens of millions of pounds.
"We have not had to find new money to do this."
The proposal to buy the building will need to be formally approved by councillors at a meeting of the full council next Thursday.
The full article contains 265 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
