Dunfermline: Fife Council will leave New City House

New City House, on Edgar Street, was purpose-built for the local authority at a cost of £1.97 million but will shut when the lease expires in February.

It is part of the council's corporate office estate that is "significantly underutilised" and staff have been relocated to a variety of places, including City Chambers, Segal House, Halbeath depot, Pitreavie, Brunton House in Cowdenbeath, and Bankhead and Fife House in Glenrothes, over the past few months.

New City House is owned by an American pension fund and the local authority added that they "haven't shared their intentions for the building".

Councillor James Calder, convener of the City of Dunfermline area committee, said: "It's a shame in a sense but I think it's a sign of the times.

Purpose built for Fife Council, New City House is their main office building in Dunfermline. (Image: Fife Council)

"There's just not the same need for large scale office space as there was in the past and property services have taken the decision that it's surplus to requirements."

The closure is just a proposal at the moment, it is included in the draft asset management strategy for 2023-28 that was discussed at a meeting last week, but the Press understands the remaining teams in New City House will relocate over the next couple of months to ensure the building is vacant before the lease expires.

A number of services, such as the contact centre and social work, were based there and the building also has meeting rooms, a cafe, conference space and changing facilities, as well as a car park and toilets.

It's unfortunate that a major council building with 'New City' in its title is closing, just as Dunfermline is trying to make the most of its new city status, and Cllr Calder said he hoped it won't be empty for long.

Councillor James Calder, convener of the City of Dunfermline area committee, said no services will be lost as a result of the closure.
He said: "We don't own the building. In general there's a lot of concern about vacant properties in the city centre area so I hope they put it to good use.

"We don't want to see any more derelict buildings in Dunfermline.

"At the moment there's not a huge amount of staff still working there.

"I've spoken to property services, as I had some initial concerns about this, but they've assured me that there will be no local service provision lost."

New City House was officially opened in September 2005 by Scottish minister Tom McCabe.

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Capable of providing working space for up to 450 staff members, it was built on the site of the former Dunfermline and West Fife Hospital.

It brought employees who were working in 11 different locations all together under one roof.

Council leader at the time, Anne McGovern, said: "This has allowed us to release buildings for sale which are surplus to requirements and put the money raised towards the development costs of creating New City House."

Now it too has been deemed surplus to requirements.

The finance economy and corporate service scrutiny committee was told last week that 'utilisation' at some of the offices earmarked for closure "varies roughly between 35 to 60 per cent" due to the change to "blended workstyles".

Michael O'Gorman, service manager in estates, said: "If you've seen the numbers they're very low, it's easy to walk around these buildings, and some of it is driven by changes post-Covid.

"There's still room for further reduction in our office estate."

Councillors heard that Monday and Friday "tend to be very quiet in the office" compared to Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as the "office activity tends to get crammed into those periods".