Swindon Borough Council is looking at using fewer of the 42 buildings its officers currently work in.

And that could mean it lets other organisations use them or it could dispose of them in other ways.

The properties in the borough owned by Euclid Street are valued at a total of about £1.045bn. Just under half of that is made up of the council houses and lets the authority owns, and the rest is a mixture of its own buildings, properties it lets, and a large number, worth £115m, are buildings and property for the 19 schools under the council’s control.

But a new report to the authority’s corporate and resources oversight and scrutiny committee - which monitors how the council is working – says the Covid-19 pandemic and its lockdowns means quite a lot of property can be freed up.

The report, by council officer Rob Richards says: “The council occupies properties for the delivery of a variety of services and there are in total 42 properties used for this purpose.

“The properties the Council operates include: two museums - Steam and Lydiard House, five libraries, an outdoor education centre, a crematorium and cemetery, a residential care home, and five listed buildings.”

The council’s plan for its buildings has initially looked at the Euclid Street campus of six buildings centred on the Civic Offices.

The report says: “Following the changes that occurred during Covid-19 where the majority of office-based staff moved to home working, this work pattern has continued with a hybrid form of working practice for officers reflecting a balance of both home and office-based working.

“The change in the use of offices has already resulted in the council vacating offices at Regent and Wyvern House in Theatre Square, with staff relocating to Wat Tyler West and Waterside, and leases have recently been completed to groups who are now occupying these premises.

“A review of the use of office space at the Civic Campus has identified that there is now the opportunity to reduce the number of buildings that are occupied. Work is being progressed to enable activity to be consolidated into a smaller number of buildings.

“This in turn provides the scope for the Council to consider alternative use for any vacated building and whether stakeholders have any requirements for accommodation.”

It adds: “Properties identified for disposal would usually be marketed for sale to identify the most appropriate purchaser. However, consideration would also be given to a disposal to a specific purchaser without wider marketing taking place based on the merits of such a disposal.”

The meeting begins at 6pm on Wednesday, November 23 at the Civic Offices.