Southwark’s ruling Lib Dems have confirmed that they aren’t able to ask for a rent cut for their swanky new council offices because the lease they agreed for the building doesn’t allow it. Office rents dropped by over 20% in London last year, meaning that the council could have saved over £1 million off its £6.7 million annual rent bill if it had asked for a cut at the market rate.

The contract the Lib Dems agreed with the anonymous owner of the offices on Tooley Street in London Bridge, who operates through a Swiss Bank, only allows for the council’s rent to stay the same or go up when it’s renegotiated. The clause means that the total cost of the office’s 25 year lease to Southwark council tax payers will be at least £160 million.

Southwark Labour’s Resources spokesperson, Cllr Richard Livingstone said:

“Office rents across London dropped by almost a quarter last year. The fact that the Lib Dem administration didn’t have the foresight to imagine that rents in London might go down as well as up is simply staggering.

“If the Lib Dems had been able to renegotiate its rent in line with the market this year it would be able to pay over a million pounds less every year. That’s money that could otherwise be spent on improving our shameful social care, extending the recycling service or cutting council tax.”