An office building that used to be the home of businesses and a charity has been converted into flats.
Thames House in Portman Road, West Reading previously served as offices for businesses and the Age UK charity.
The building is in a mixed residential and commercial area, with homes to the south and nearby businesses including Eden Vauxhall, Kingdom Coffee and the Double-Barrelled Brewery.
The offices were refurbished in 2019 with adverts appearing on the LoopNet and NovaLoca property website.
However, plans surfaced to convert Thames House into 16 flats in May 2020, with the project being approved in August that year.
The conversion attracted objections at the time by Age UK which had offices there before the charity coalesced its operations to Walford Hall in Carey Street and Broad Street Mall.
Thames House is now home to 12 one-bed and four two-bed flats.
The conversion project was granted under prior approval legislation, which allows the change of use from commercial properties into homes without the need for planning permission.
Councils can only dismiss a prior approval application for a limited set of reasons, such as noise, contamination or flooding concerns.
The conversion project has since been completed by the development company Soni.Me Ltd.
A resident who moved into Thames House six months ago and a staff member at a nearby business both said that it is being used as council housing.
However, on clarification, a council spokesperson said that the flats are privately owned, but the council has helped tenants move into them via its Rent Guarantee Scheme process.
The scheme matches people who need homes with landlords who have properties to let.
A council web page states: “We pay the rent directly to the landlord, in advance. We also guarantee to pay up to six weeks’ rent as a tenancy deposit, to cover costs if your property is damaged by your tenants.”
The guarantee scheme for landlords ranges from bedrooms in shared houses, called homes of multiple occupation (HMOs) all the way up to four-bedroom houses.
To be eligible, prospective tenants must have lived in Reading for at least six of the last 12 months, be receiving benefits or on a low income, and must have good tenancy history, amongst other eligibility criteria.
The conversion of Thames House has been a relatively recent affair, as advertising for three businesses could still be seen in Street view imagery from June 2023.
The occupying businesses were ITS Interior Transformation Specialists, Robert Rigby Architects and LTS Ceilings and Partitions.
Soni.Me also gained approval to build an extension to Thames House to create new office space in June 2022.
