Newcastle Council Making a City-Change

BY IAN CROUCH and JESSICA ROUSE

Newcastle City Council is making a city-change, moving its administrative headquarters to a new building in Newcastle West.

Council's 400 admin staff will start to move into the building in 2019 to the new five-level building which will be on the corner of Hunter Street and Stuart Avenue.

It'll cost council $7 million dollars to relocate, but Interim CEO Jeremy Bath said it's going to create long-term savings.

"Council was faced with a $6.3 million bill if we chose to stay in our current location of roundhouse and specifically the Frederick Ash building. We estimate savings will be in the vicinity of up to $14,000 per relocated employee,"

Artist impression of the new Council building Image supplied

"The majority of those savings will come about as a result of substantially improved productivity, reduced absenteeism and also a significant reduction in turnover," said Jeremy Bath.

Council says they'll be making savings by reducing absenteeism within the council staff which has been the case at other councils like Melbourne and Ryde.

"For example seeing a 41 per cent reduction in absenteeism. Absenteeism at Newcastle City Council costs us in the vicinity of about $2.5 million per year so if we're able to bring that down by around 40 per cent, we're looking at savings straight off the bat of $1 million every single year," said Jeremy Bath.

The building will form a part of council's Smart City Plan and will be on lease to council for 15 years.

Where there are savings, there will also be benefits to the nature of the work council does and how they do it.

Interim CEO Jeremy Bath & Lord Mayor
Nuatali Nelmes.

"We're dealing with 1970s technology and 1970s workforce layout. It frankly is too difficult to collaborate and communicate because your own teammates aren't beside you, they're not on the same floor and they're often not in the same building.," said Jeremy Bath.

The decision has also been applauded by the Hunter Business Chamber who see the benefits for council and also the possibilities for what can happen with the buildings council staff are moving out of.

"After such a long period of time the workspace has become difficult to adapt and we're aware council was stretched over a number of buildings in the CBD and that in turn no matter what you do about it does impact productivity," Chamber CEO Bob Hawes.