Croydon Council’s headquarters has become a danger to staff and passers-by and needs “gutting”, senior council staff have said.

The 40-year-old Taberner House building costs more than £1m each year in repairs and refurbishments to keep it safe, with the council claiming a £40m upgrade would only add about 20 years to its usable life.

A total of £85,000 has just been spent fitting netting to the side of the building to prevent lumps of concrete flaking from the top and falling on to passers-by.

Another £500,000 is being spent making the building’s high voltage electricity supply safe, with the low voltage supply also in need of being replaced in the near future.

When a lift caught fire in the bowels of the building last year, engineers discovered it was still using radio valve technology from the 1960s.

Council Leader Mike Fisher told the Croydon Guardian the council’s only option was to find alternative accommodation.

He said: “The bottom line is the council simply cannot afford to remain in Taberner House.

“It’s an obsolete, expensive and inefficient building on which routine maintenance is escalating.

“It was designed back in the 50s and it shows. No amount of patching up can make up for its inherent faults and age.”

Croydon’s Labour party has frequently condemned plans to build a new council headquarters, instead proposing money is spent refurbishing Taberner House and constructing smaller council ‘hubs’ around the borough.

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