According to a new plan, Leeds authorities might sell off a big amount of council office buildings located in the city centre that would help them save a staggering sum of £87 million in the next twenty five years. Presently there are 14 council buildings in the city accommodating about 4,000 employees.

The detailed plans will be discussed in the near future at great length, and it is being speculated that the entire staff might be consolidated in five buildings situated at a central location. Another proposal is that with the help of IT networking and voice-over-internet-protocol services, workers might be asked to work from their home offices. The idea behind this suggestion is to create shared office facilities that would allow most of the staff members to work at their homes. This suggestion is being termed as an eco-friendly one, because when employees would work from homes, car traffic in the area would decrease.

Councillor Richard Brett, executive board member for resources said that the council is looking for flexible staff management as it does not need all its employees behind desks in order to get work done. Working from home would give create a possibility to reduce staff members in office every day. He said that by selling or renting off the buildings that are not in use, the council would be able to decrease its annual spending.

These proposals are actually a part of a new project called Changing the Workplace, which is going to be discussed soon at the Executive Board meeting of the council.