Modern purpose-designed eco-friendly offices that are enabling Birmingham City Council to efficiently bring services under one roof have been opened in Erdington.

The new building, situated on Sutton New Road is 35,000 sq ft and is occupied by 450 staff who were previously based at two sites - Lancaster Circus in the City Centre and Orphanage Road.

Developed by Thomas Vale Construction, through the council-led Birmingham Construction Partnership, the creation of £6.3m building represents one of the first visible phases of the council’s Working for the Future programme.

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Working for the Future, which aims to review and overhaul the council's entire property portfolio and work styles, is part of the wider nine-strand Business Transformation programme that will achieve £1bn of efficiency savings for the authority.

The building has also been developed with the environment in mind, with features including a state-of-the-art ventilation system that minimises the use of traditional air conditioning.

Optimum working temperatures are achieved by careful management of heat energy which has helped the building to achieve a 'very good' rating against the prestigious BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) standard.

Deputy City Council Leader, Paul Tilsley, whose portfolio also extends to the subject of sustainability, said: "I am very pleased that this project is helping us to realise the authority’s aim of boosting regeneration in the city’s constituencies and is doing its bit for the environment by being an energy efficient building on a brownfield site."

(JM)