CIVIC chiefs have been urged to take stock of Winchester City Council’s properties as more of its staff continue to work from home during the coronavirus lockdown.

In May this year 82 per cent of authority employees were working from home, with only essential staff remaining in the office to support the delivery of critical services.

The latest figures provided by the council show that the number of staff who have not yet returned to the office has decreased to 65 per cent, with 35 per cent of its team now back in the workplace.

At a meeting of full council Conservative councillor Stephen Godfrey asked the ruling Lib Dems to look at the authority’s properties to determine whether any could be sold off.

He said: “Very small numbers of officers who are using the West Wing and the city offices at the moment and yet the council is delivering a full range of services.

“What action has been taken to review the council's need for these very important assets and whether or not we should be looking at reducing our property holdings in the city centre when we clearly do not need to have them.”

The council’s West Wing office has been closed but for the meeting rooms as it was not practical to make the office floors Covid secure for the small numbers of staff that could be accommodated there.

Deputy leader and cabinet member for finance and risk Cllr Neil Cutler said that a review of the council’s assets which will take place as part of its medium-term financial strategy.

He added: “It is something that we will consider in time. We will have to look at a whole series of options and one of them will be what level of office space we require to be able to continue to deliver a good service.”

The council had planned to welcome more staff back to their offices, but due to the Prime Minister’s announcement urging people to work from home if possible, it has been paused.

Winchester City Council has been forced to look at ways to shrink a deficit of £10.7million in light of the Covid-19 outbreak which has put a major strain on its budget.