HUNDREDS of council staff are beginning the three month migration into their newly refurbished offices following a £11 million makeover.

Hove Town Hall is nearing completion after a 15-month refurbishment to accommodate hundreds more council staff, public sector partners and commercial leasees.

The move is part of a multi-million property deal to free up the seafront King’s House for sale to developers for a fee potentially in excess of £20 million.

But unions have warned that the move to hot desking could lead to increased absence through sickness with infections spread between shared equipment.

The town hall will officially be handed back to the council from contractors on September 5 although some staff are already making the move across.

The authority has said it is moving away from “one desk per person” system and embracing a more flexible hot desking approach.

Before building works began there were 400 desks to approximately 400 staff but now the building will accommodate approximately twice as many staff between 600 desks.

The work to expand the town hall began in May last year and has seen council office space increase from 34,615 sqft to 40,662 sqft.

Council staff said the project has made better use of “wasted space” including creating new offices over previously inaccessible roof space.

During the renovation, the council learned it would have to find room for more employees after housing development staff refused to move from the town hall to the council’s housing department in Moulsecoomb.

Office space will be let to Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group, currently based at Lancaster House, in a bid to ease closer working between the two organisations.

Among the significant changes is the conversion of the Great Hall, which previously hosted music concerts and wrestling bouts, into modern office space while a café has been built at the hall’s Norton Road entrance.

Negotiations are still ongoing with businesses to move into newly available commercial space and to operate the café.

Cllr Warren Morgan, leader of the council, said: “We are aiming to save £2million every year by fundamentally changing how we work as an organisation.

"The sale of King's House and the relocation of staff to a more efficient office environment will help us to be more flexible, responsive and customer focused."

GMB branch secretary Mark Turner said: “If you look at the sickness statistics then that has increased with more people off because of the change in work styles, because of sharing equipment like keyboards which then aren’t wiped down.

“There have also been occasions already with hotdesking at Bartholomew Square where there hasn’t been enough desks, people have turned up to work and there is nowhere for them to work.”