Spelthorne plans to sell Communications House on South Street, Staines, to a developer expected to turn it into homes. Councillors vote on 12 and 22 October.
Spelthorne Borough Council is set to sell Communications House, the office block it owns on South Street in Staines. The buyer is expected to convert it into homes.
Councillors on the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee will consider the sale on Monday 12 October. They are being asked to recommend it to full Council, which takes the final decision on Thursday 22 October. That timetable is set out in the officers’ report to the committee.
The sale price and the buyer’s name are in confidential appendices, so the public papers do not give them.
Why the council is selling
The council bought Communications House in July 2018. It was part of the borrowing-funded property programme meant to earn income for front-line services.
It has not worked out for this building. The report says:
- in the year to 31 March 2026 the rent did not cover the building’s running and financing costs
- the building has seen “a significant fall in value” since 2018
- it is about 81% let, but to only two tenants
- both leases expire, or have a mutual break, in January 2029
- there are “no realistic prospects” of its value returning to the purchase price as offices
The council’s annual commercial property report listed 11,945 sq ft of the building as empty at 31 March 2026.
Officers expect the building to keep losing money for the next six years if it is not sold. They say keeping it would leave the cost with West Surrey Council, which takes over from Spelthorne on 1 April 2027.
How the buyer was found
The building was not openly advertised. Developers who convert offices to flats had already approached the council and its agents, Knight Frank, about buying it.
Two of them were invited to bid, and both did. According to the report, the recommended buyer made the highest offer, and price was “the only material difference” between the two bids.
Councils must get the best price they reasonably can when they sell land. To show that, the report relies on:
- a recommendation from Knight Frank
- an independent valuation by Allsop
- a comparison with bids for Thameside House, the council’s building next door, which was openly marketed and also sold for conversion to homes
The council’s finance chief says the offer is “at the top end of the anticipated offer range”. The government-appointed commissioners overseeing the council say they “strongly support” the sale.
The report says a residential conversion fits the emerging Staines masterplan and “will deliver much needed housing to the town centre”. It does not say how many homes. Any conversion would still need planning approval.
A property portfolio worth half what it cost
Communications House is one of 12 investment properties the council held at 31 March 2026. It bought them between 2016 and 2018 with government loans.
The annual report gives the scale of the losses:
- Knight Frank valued the portfolio at £525.78 million on 31 March 2026
- that was £91.375 million (14.81%) lower than a year earlier
- it is £550.918 million (51.1%) less than the properties were worth when bought
The report gives the 31 March 2026 value and the size of each fall. Adding them back puts the portfolio at about £617.2 million a year earlier and about £1,076.7 million when it was bought.
The properties also stopped paying their way in 2025/26. After financing costs they made a loss of £26.64 million, against net contributions of £7.2 million in 2023/24 and £8.8 million in 2024/25. The report puts the swing down to the government’s directions and the refinancing of the council’s debt in November 2025, which cut the debt by £342 million but raised the yearly repayments.
Government directions issued in May 2025 require the council to cut its borrowing, and it is selling buildings to do it. The money from Communications House would go towards reducing that debt.
Also for sale: an office in Hammersmith
The same committee agenda carries a separate sale report for 12 Hammersmith Grove, an office building in west London that the council also owns. In September councillors were asked to approve the sale of Elmbrook House in Sunbury.
What it means for you
Nothing changes yet for the building or South Street. The sale needs full Council’s approval on 22 October, then contracts. The report warns that a buyer can still cut its offer or pull out before contracts are exchanged.
If you want a say, both meetings are held in public at Knowle Green. The 12 October agenda lists every item, and the council’s democracy pages carry the arrangements for speaking or watching.
If the building is converted, any plans will appear on the council’s planning register, and we will report them. Our planning news page tracks the town centre schemes already in the system.
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