Huge £7.6m to be borrowed for Northgate House development

The £10.6 million scheme will see retail premises and offices developed at the key site, which was the council’s home until staff were moved to other offices in the town centre recently.

Another part of the Northgate site, occupied by Central Library and Archives which are now housed in custom-built premises next to Halifax Piece Hall, is being developed in a separate scheme as a Sixth Form College for Calderdale.

Councillors took the item in private session, with public and press excluded, to allow them to ask questions and debate matters which may have included sensitive financial information.

They approved the sum of £10.6 million to be included in the capital programme to support the development of the north and east blocks of Northgate House – subject to £3 million of Growth Deal funding being made available by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority of which Calderdale is part, with the combined authority signalling its support in the summer when it awarded some cash to progress the scheme.

The development includes renewal of the courtyard areas and an anticipated 85 per cent level of occupancy has been predicted by the council.

The council will need to borrow its £7.6 million share of the cash which will be achieved by prudential borrowing – this type of borrowing is subject to a code of conduct and allows local authorities to fund capital schemes such as this.