Sunderland Council defends £77,000 City Hall window cleaning bill after Lib Dems join criticism

Data obtained by the Northern Echo under Freedom of Information, showed that between December 2021 and February 28, 2023 the council paid window cleaning bills for the hall totalling £77,310.

The leader of Sunderland’s Liberal Democrats, Cllr Niall Hodson, says the bill is way too high and that City Hall is beset with other problems.

The building on the former Vaux brewery site opened in late 2021, replacing the crumbling Civic Centre. It is used for council business as well by other organisations including Gentoo and Sunderland College. The total annual rent between tenants is around £2.4million.

Backing for the building of the 200,000 sq ft space building came from investment firm Legal & General, who provided £100million for City Hall as well as two other Riverside Sunderland offices.

Cllr Hodson told the Echo: “The window cleaning bill seems very steep. I’m not sure it represents value for money, but then the whole building doesn’t represent value for money.

“We’re paying £2.4million of rent a year. It’s yet more expenditure that’s going on City Hall.

“The building is expensive to run and there are all sorts of problems with it. They’re having to get an audio consultant in because the sound and PA systems don’t work properly.

“The building on the whole is very expensive and I’m not sure we’d have gone through with it in a cost of living crisis.”

Cllr Antony Mullen, leader of Sunderland Conservatives, has pointed out that the council does not own City Hall.

He told reporters: “I hope that the cost of window cleaning will be divided between all of the building's tenants.

“The amount the council has spent on window cleaning is excessive – this is spending by politicians, for politicians.”

A statement from Sunderland City Council said: “The multi-award winning City Hall is a large, modern and hi-tech building arranged over seven storeys which has been designed to reflect modern health and wellbeing standards and promote open democracy.

“It therefore contains large amounts of glazing including glazed facades, internal glass doors, walls and partitions to utilise as much natural light as possible and maximise views into and out of the building.

“The building is home to several public sector organisations and the annual window cleaning costs reflect the scale and nature of the building. The costs include specialist cleaning works such as those to the high level internal atrium.

“Contractors have been procured in accordance with public sector procurement requirements to ensure value for money and the move to City Hall has saved the City Council approximately £130,000 in electricity bills alone.”

Cllr Graeme Miller, leader of the Labour run Sunderland City Council, dismissed the comments from his political rivals.

He said in a statement: “This ridiculous non-story being pushed by the Conservatives is a desperate bid to score much-needed political points ahead of the local elections.”