Woodhatch Place in Reigate is the new council's headquarters from 1 April 2027. Esher Civic Centre came second, and costs £1.65m a year less to run.
The council that replaces Elmbridge Borough Council in April 2027 will be run from Reigate, not Esher.
The East Surrey Shadow Authority Executive approved Woodhatch Place, 11 Cockshot Hill, Reigate as the Day 1 headquarters and civic centre for the new East Surrey Council on 14 September. The decision was published on 16 September and can still be called in until 24 September. If nobody calls it in, it takes effect on 25 September.
Elmbridge Civic Centre in Esher was one of five buildings shortlisted. It came second.
Woodhatch Place is Surrey County Council’s headquarters. It sits about 12 miles south east of Esher in a straight line, on the far side of the M25, using the Office for National Statistics postcode centroids for KT10 9SD and RH2 8EF.
What was actually decided
The resolution has three parts:
- Woodhatch Place is approved as the preferred Day 1 headquarters for East Surrey Council
- officers may take it into detailed implementation and mobilisation planning for Vesting Day
- the Chief Executive may approve minor operational amendments, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder, Chief Finance Officer and Monitoring Officer
Two things it does not decide. It does not move any staff, and it does not settle where the new council will hold its meetings. The report says a separate report on civic accommodation will come during the shadow year, covering meeting locations, meeting start times and where the relevant staff sit.
It also does not close any council office. The report states plainly that designating Woodhatch Place “does not mean that local services will be centralised”, and that existing arrangements continue from Day 1.
Esher scored top on the heaviest criterion and still lost
Seven criteria were weighted and scored out of five. Elmbridge Civic Centre matched Woodhatch Place on the joint-heaviest of them, Member and Democratic Capacity, and beat it on Location Accessibility.
| Criterion | Weight | Esher | Woodhatch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Member and democratic capacity | 25% | 5 | 5 |
| Operational functionality | 25% | 4 | 5 |
| Deliverability | 20% | 4 | 5 |
| Location accessibility | 10% | 4 | 3 |
| Day 1 cost | 10% | 3 | 5 |
| Dependencies | 5% | 4 | 4 |
| Flexibility | 5% | 4 | 5 |
| Weighted score, as published | 100% | 4.25 | 4.75 |
The other three shortlisted buildings scored lower: Pippbrook Offices in Dorking 3.85, Reigate and Banstead Town Hall 3.75, and Tandridge District Council’s offices in Oxted 2.95. Epsom and Ewell Town Hall and the county’s Dakota building were on the long list and were not shortlisted.
One note on the arithmetic. We recalculated each weighted score from the sub-scores printed in the same table. Woodhatch Place comes out at exactly 4.75. The other four all come out 0.1 lower than printed: Elmbridge Civic Centre at 4.15 rather than 4.25, Pippbrook at 3.75, Reigate and Banstead Town Hall at 3.65, Tandridge at 2.85. The offset runs the same way for every option except the winning one, it flatters the four that lost rather than the one that won, and it does not change the order. The papers do not explain it.
The cost the announcement leaves out
Woodhatch Place won on Day 1 cost, scoring five out of five, because it needs no capital spending at all to be ready. That is a genuine advantage against a 1 April deadline.
It is also the most expensive of the two to run, by some distance.
The report puts Woodhatch Place at £2.75m a year and Elmbridge Civic Centre at about £1.1m a year. Esher also earns about £210,000 a year in rent from tenants on the site, which the report lists as Surrey Police, Infonetica and NSL. Woodhatch Place earns “minimal” income from licences.
Against that, Esher would have needed £50,000 to £100,000 of capital, a similar sum in one off revenue costs, and a further £50,000 to £100,000 a year in ongoing revenue. Woodhatch Place needs £0 of capital and £0 to £30,000 of revenue.
Even taking the top of every Esher figure, the yearly gap runs well over a million pounds. The report does not net the two off, because it says it has not looked at running costs beyond Day 1 at all: “The options appraisal has not at this stage reviewed the medium-term ongoing running costs or future capital requirements.”
The building the new council has picked also carries known bills ahead. The report records a boiler replacement due within five years, three lifts due within three to five years at £300,000, and general capital maintenance of £75,000 to £125,000 a year. There is an £80,000 a year shuttle bus between Redhill station and Woodhatch Place, which the report suggests continuing because there is no bus stop outside the building.
Scrutiny asked the same question
The East Surrey Overview and Scrutiny Committee looked at this on 9 September. Its draft minute records that members “questioned whether sufficient weight had been given within the options appraisal to the future revenue costs of operating the facility”.
Officers answered that the recommendation was assessed against Day 1 need only, and that a wider estate review would examine operating costs later. Members also asked whether the cost of keeping, selling or repurposing the buildings that lost had been included. Officers confirmed it had not, and that this fell outside the report’s scope.
The committee did not object. It noted the report and asked that future estate planning “continue to consider the importance of being accessible to residents across East Surrey”.
What this means for the Civic Centre in Esher
The appraisal contains something the council has not announced. Elmbridge Civic Centre is marked down for one constraint in particular: “The site is subject to a planning brief early next year to redevelop the site.”
The building’s own profile page in the appraisal adds that it “has had minimal capital condition survey investment for several years now due to the potential redevelopment of site”, and that significant capital investment would be needed within a few years if it were used as a civic headquarters. The working group’s note gives a date: a planning brief due to Cabinet in February 2027, the month before Elmbridge Borough Council ceases to exist.
For comparison, the appraisal puts the two buildings at:
- Floor area: Woodhatch Place 110,000 sq ft, Elmbridge Civic Centre 66,748 sq ft including 10,766 sq ft let to tenants
- Desks: Woodhatch Place 533 or more, Elmbridge Civic Centre 565
- Parking: Woodhatch Place 460 spaces including 24 for disabled drivers, Elmbridge Civic Centre 345 including 5
- Council chamber: Elmbridge seats 74, or up to 90 with extra microphones and tables, with a public gallery of 42 that could reach 75
- Nearest station: Redhill is 2 miles from Woodhatch Place and Reigate 1 mile; Esher station is 0.9 miles from the Civic Centre
- Air conditioning: at Esher it covers the chamber and the connecting committee rooms only
One small thing dates the paper. It says a full Equality Impact Assessment “will be completed during August 2026”, in the future tense, in a report taken on 14 September.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes at the Civic Centre yet. Elmbridge Borough Council runs from High Street, Esher until 31 March 2027, and the new council says existing offices and face to face services carry on after that.
- The call-in window closes on 24 September. Until then the decision can be referred back by councillors. Call-ins are recorded on the shadow authority’s decision register, where the count currently stands at zero.
- Where councillors will meet is still open. The civic accommodation report is due during the shadow year. If you attend or speak at meetings, that is the decision to watch, not this one.
- February 2027 is the date for the Civic Centre site itself. A planning brief for redeveloping it is expected at Cabinet that month. Applications in the borough are tracked on our Elmbridge planning news page.
- Council tax bills change shape in 2027 too. Elmbridge’s current bands are on our Elmbridge council tax bands page.
East Surrey Council covers Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead and Tandridge from 1 April 2027. Surrey Heath and Woking go into West Surrey Council instead.
Sources
- East Surrey Shadow Authority Executive decision: East Surrey Day 1 Headquarters (HQ) for the resolution, the decision date of 14 September, the publication date of 16 September, the call-in deadline of 24 September and the current call-in count.
- East Surrey Day 1 Headquarters (HQ), report to the East Surrey Shadow Authority Executive, 14 September 2026 for the shortlist, the weighted scores of 4.75 and 4.25, the running costs, the rental income, the capital and revenue figures, the lift and boiler maintenance, the £80,000 shuttle bus, the floor areas, desks, parking, chamber capacity and station distances, the planning brief constraint, the statement that medium-term running costs were not reviewed, and the Equality Impact Assessment wording.
- Appendix 1, option appraisal pack for the seven criteria and their weights, every sub-score in the table above, the long list including Epsom and Ewell Town Hall and Dakota, and the Elmbridge Civic Centre profile page recording minimal condition survey investment and a planning brief due to Cabinet in February 2027.
- Overview and Scrutiny Committee minute extract, 9 September 2026 for the questions on revenue costs and on the cost of the alternatives, and the committee’s resolution.
- Mole Valley District Council news, 15 September 2026: plans for East Surrey Council continue to progress for the shadow authority’s public account of the meeting and the constituent councils.
- Straight line distance calculated from the Office for National Statistics postcode centroids for KT10 9SD and RH2 8EF, via the open postcodes.io service.
The weighted score recalculation above is our own arithmetic, applied to the weights and sub-scores as published in Appendix 1.
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