Local building firm R.G. Carter has been awarded the contract for £14m of essential maintenance to Norfolk County Hall, Norwich.

County Hall, built in the late 1960s, is the cornerstone of a new strategy aimed at driving down property costs, including a potential £2m a year saving by bringing all Norwich-based county council staff to Martineau Lane.

But the building - opened by Her Majesty the Queen in May 1968 - is now showing its age and needs significant maintenance if it is to become the main base for council staff for another generation.

The contract awarded to R.G. Carter covers the most intensive first phase of work on the main tower block and will be followed two more phases to bring the total investment in the building to £22.2m over 25 years. For the rest of 2012, R.G. Carter will be working closely with NPS Property Consultants and the Council to plan the work, which will start in the spring of 2013 and last until 2015. The work programme is being developed to reduce disruption to staff, but it will start at the top of the tower on the roof and rooftop plant, and the eighth floor.

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Cliff Jordan, Cabinet Member for Efficiency, said: "We looked at a number of options, but even with an overall maintenance cost of over £22m, retaining County Hall is the most practical and affordable solution.

"The costs will be offset by savings of up to £2m as staff vacate other buildings and move to County Hall. This is already underway - for example, moving staff out of Sapphire House (Roundtree Way) will save over £300,000 a year.

"In the past 12 months we have seen a 14,000 sq ft reduction in county council offices in Norwich - that's more than one and half times the Carrow Road football pitch - and this will continue."

(CD)