Refurbishment of Big Lottery Fund’s Offices in Birmingham

The Big Lottery Fund is a Non-Departmental Government Body investing in communities through a range of funding programmes, from small grants programmes like Awards for All to large strategic programmes like Reaching Communities. It distributes funds raised through the National Lottery and also supports the distribution of government funding to good causes. The Birmingham Centre is home to the England Investments Team that awards grants to good causes throughout England and the UK. Further it is the main critical operational centre for the Fund’s in house; IT, HR, Finance and Audit services.The Fund currently employs 290 staff in the Birmingham Centre Big Lottery Fund has occupied the whole of Apex house for the last 10 years under a full repair and maintenance lease. As of the 7th September 2016 it will reduce its occupancy to floors 2, 3 and 4 only, with the common areas returning to landlord management. As part of the new lease, Big Lottery Fund will need to comply with the Government Property Unit’s approval, namely:- • Sub-let half of one floor to another government department. We anticipate that this will be the West end (Harborne Road side / ‘Non Kitchen Side’) of the second floor • Achieve an occupancy of less than 1 desk per employee. We are keen to achieve at least 9.5 desks per 10 employees. We anticipate needing 280 desks in total The project is primarily to achieve these occupancy requirements, but also to refresh and re-organise what is now an old and worn interior; Also to replace the mechanical plant and controls on the floors to achieve greater reliability and consistency of air temperatures and flows. It is important to the Fund that the project demonstrates an investment in the wellbeing of its staff whilst being mindful of its obligations to use public funds appropriately. The target budget for this project is circa £2 million.