January 17, 2023 7:00am by David Farrar

$500,000 a month for an empty building

An empty Wellington building cost taxpayers nearly $2.4 million over four months.

The Ministry of Education closed its head office in May last year, after an engineering report rated it to be at 25% of the New Building Standard (NBS) due to its concrete floors. More than 1000 staff members worked in the building.

In answering questions from National education spokesperson Erica Stanford, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said the Ministry “continues to honour the lease and pay ongoing operating costs for the building which include rent, insurance, energy, cleaning, maintenance, and security for the building”.

Why are taxpayers still paying $500,000 a month for a building deemed too dangerous to occupy?

Surely the Government didn’t sign a lease that doesn’t have an exclusion for earthquake safety?