Norwich Council spent thousands on upkeep of Colman home

Norwich City Council said it has incurred costs of £70,000 a year while it struggled to lease Carrow House, which was initially purchased to provide office space for small businesses.

The authority bought the historic site from Norfolk County Council for more than £2m in 2021 and invested a further £1.4m in its refurbishment, but the building has since sat vacant.

It will now be occupied by Norwich Unity Hub, a newly-founded group of charities and social enterprises which aims to foster collaboration between those organisations by adopting a co-working space.

While the refurbished site was initially intended for use as office space, it was discovered following the refurbishment that finding an occupier for part of the building would leave the council liable for more than £100,000 of void business rates on the remainder of the property. 

Therefore, it decided to cease marketing the site.

The newer extension at the Carrow House complex (Image: Antony Kelly)

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Officers at City Hall said they were forced to consider "alternative meanwhile uses" for the building as it would continue to incur costs of up to £70,000 if kept vacant due to insurance, security, utility and repair and maintenance charges.

Norwich Unity Hub will now occupy the space for three years at a very low rate of rent and has also been granted £282,000 in Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) from the council to support the project. 

Norwich City Council's cabinet voted unanimously in favour of the deal this week, which is hoped to provide savings in hold costs and bring the building back into use.

CARROW WORKS CURSE?

Carrow House forms part of former Colman's Mustard factory site Carrow Works, which was expected to see almost 2,000 new homes built under plans lodged by Fuel Properties in 2022.

However, the plans were scrapped in March following a breakdown in communications with the developer which had resulted in delays to the application. 

The Carrow Works site in Norwich (Image: Fuel Properties)

Councillors refused the plans due to concerns about the lack of affordable homes within the housing development, along with insufficient detail about its impact on the surrounding environment and road networks. 

It had formed part of the council's flagship East Norwich Masterplan, under which 3,000 homes and 4,000 jobs are planned to be created at Carrow and neighbouring sites in Trowse.

The largely vacant Carrow Works site was home to the Colman’s Mustard factory for more than 160 years and contains several listed structures, which the council was keen to preserve, including Carrow House.

Council officials said the car parking area at Carrow House has been excluded from the deal with Norwich Unity Hub to ensure it does not impact the ability for the area to be brought forward for redevelopment over the next three years. 

Feasibility work is ongoing to consider the future options for the site and its redevelopment potential.

How the redevelopment might have looked (Image: Fuel Properties)

Carrow House is a combination of a Grade-II listed former home of the Colman family, including an ornate Victorian conservatory, and a post-Second World War office building, known as New Carrow House.

The city received £25m from the government's Towns Fund bid to kickstart the East Norwich Masterplan scheme and a chunk of that was used for the purchase and refurbishment of the buildings.