Hobson and Porter has begun work on a £5.5m refurbishment of Hull's Treasury Building, a contract that gives the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire contractor a lead role in one of the region's public sector energy-efficiency retrofit schemes.

Hobson and Porter, headquartered in Kingston upon Hull, is a family-owned construction firm founded in 1971, operating across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire for private and public sector clients.

Hull City Council, the project client, will relocate up to 500 corporate, IT and finance staff into the refurbished building from the Maritime Buildings on Alfred Gelder Street, which is closing as it is no longer a cost-effective operational hub.

The four-storey, 1987-built structure is being fitted with replacement windows, a new heating and cooling system, energy-efficient lighting, photovoltaic panels, internal partition walls for meeting rooms, and an upgraded external facade, while respecting its position in Hull's Old Town Conservation Area.

Hobson and Porter has a 30-strong team on site for the project, supported by its established local supply chain, according to contracts manager Wayne Cropp.

The scheme is valued at £5.5m (€6.4m), part-funded by the government's Salix fund, with completion due next summer.

Retrofitting a 1987 office block rather than commissioning new-build space reflects the direction most UK public sector estate strategies are now taking: consolidate, decarbonise and reuse rather than replace.

Salix, the government's delivery agent for public sector decarbonisation funding, has channelled successive phases worth well over £3bn since 2020 into heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects across schools, hospitals, leisure centres and council buildings, of which this Hull scheme is one small part.

The project builds on Hobson and Porter's completed 2023 restoration of the neighbouring Grade II* listed Guildhall, giving the firm a track record in heritage and conservation-area work that is increasingly valuable as councils look to retrofit rather than replace ageing civic buildings.

For the sector, the pattern is consistent with the wider Salix pipeline: regional contractors with heritage retrofit experience and an established local supply chain are best placed to win these smaller, energy-efficiency-led public sector schemes as local authorities consolidate office footprints and lean on government capital grants rather than new-build budgets.

Source: Business Live / Salix Finance