PLANNING permission has been given for Bexley Council to use the former Woolwich Building Society offices as its headquarters.

Council officers hope work on the iconic building, in Watling Street, will begin this autumn and staff will move in a year later, towards the end of 2013.

The move will see staff based at one site – rather than the current four – and will cut the council’s running costs by more than £1 million annually.

Tesco is proposing to regenerate the council’s current civic offices in the Broadway with a supermarket, shops, parking spaces and a community area.

Bexley Council’s cabinet member for finance and corporate services, Councillor Colin Campbell, said: “This represents another milestone for this important project, which enables the council to move forward with its efficiency programme as well as freeing up the current civic office site to enable much-needed investment at the eastern end of Broadway.

“By getting most of the council’s non-schools staff in one building we will cut our running costs by well over £1 million each year and we expect to pay for the Woolwich building and its refurbishment from the sale of our current office sites.”

The new council offices are set to be environmentally friendly, with solar panels on the roof and a travel plan designed to reduce the number of staff travelling to work by car.

Cycle and disabled parking, as well as 97 car-parking spaces, will also be provided.

The planning application for the site was submitted in December last year and approved by Bexley Council’s planning committee on Thursday (May 24).

Plans for the Tesco redevelopment of the current civic offices will be considered by the planning committee later in the year, probably in July.