Not content with a first spell in office since the Liberal and Social Democrat parties combined, the Lib Dems are also edging their commercial property locus even closer to Westminster. Rather than a slightly awkward (though satirically delicious) Morecambe and Wise-esque flat share with Conservative BFFs, Nick Clegg is decamping from current party headquarters at 4 Cowley Street and will march his troops to the more politically central and infinitely grander sounding 10 Great George Street, SW1. The 6,700 sq ft commercial property is being taken on a ten-year lease which, in an industry where fortunes can be as unpredictable and inexplicable as an MP’s expense sheet, must seem an interminable decade to any party treasurer.
With a new commercial property slightly closer to Parliament, the saved boot leather costs can be offset to campaigning, augmenting the Lib Dem’s current foot in the door following the creation of the coalition. Party Chief Executive Chris Fox has announced their reasoning for the move, stating that, although “Cowley Street is a beautiful building [it’s] not suitable for the needs of 21st century campaigning”. One of the key criteria in the choice of a new base was undoubtedly an open-plan interior that could be accommodated on a single floor, rather than the five floors previously occupied on Cowley Street which would have made the tea run a bit of a marathon. Perhaps also a party-unifying exercise following recent fractious Conservative barbs, the new layout will possibly be conducive to a more collaborative and collegial working mentality at Lib Dem HQ.
It’s their tree house and there’s no Tories allowed.
And, in an interesting subplot of an otherwise innocuous tale of one company’s move to a new commercial property, it’s understood that the Conservatives, perhaps bored of their current digs in Westminster’s Millbank Tower, are rumoured to have instructed leading consultants Cluttons to search for a new freehold for their own party headquarters.
Anyone for a game of one-upmanship?
