Perth and Kinross Council to consider buying office building set to be mothballed

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Perth and Kinross Council has agreed to now consider the possibility of buying Pullar House which it had previously agreed to mothball.The building - on Perth’s Kinnoull Street - costs PKC £3.2 million a year to lease and provides 6,631m² of space.At PKC’s budget-setting meeting in March 2023, councillors voted to mothball Pullar House from April 2024.However, now PKC looks set to consider buying the city centre property and sharing the costs of the building with other public partners.

The idea is that having public partners use the building could help fill it as many office-based council workers now spend a lot of time working from home.Pullar House - the council’s largest office building - hosts PKC’s main office for general enquiries, cash payments, housing and council tax enquiries.PKC currently has 12 Perth City office options - outwith schools, etc - providing a total office space of 12,636m².

Eight are owned by PKC, one by the NHS and three are leased by PKC at a combined annual lease cost of £3.45 million - the current annual cost of Pullar House is £3.2 million.

According to a council report, PKC has “a projected minimum need for approximately 8,000m² of desk space across Perth City”.At a PKC meeting on Wednesday, October 4 councillors were updated on progress with mothballing Pullar House in a report by Stephen Crawford, head of property services.