Brentwood Centre Revamp Rises to £29m as Spa Is Dropped

Councillors decide on Thursday 12 November whether to approve a £29.02m redevelopment of the Brentwood Centre, £4.02m more than the £25m budget already in place, and the design going before them has lost its spa and its first-floor extension (Brentwood Borough Council, 4 November 2026).

The final business case is item 7 at the Assets and Strategy Committee, at 7pm in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall on Ingrave Road. The council’s announcement sets out what the money buys. The committee report explains why the figure moved and what was cut to hold it there.

What would be built

According to the council, the scheme includes:

• a larger ground-floor gym in a new single-storey extension
• four activity rooms for classes and group exercise
• a health hub, with the potential to work with health partners on prevention and rehabilitation
• three floodlit 3G pitches, two for football and one for football and rugby, with new changing rooms and a club room
• an improved car park with extra spaces
• accessible design throughout, including Changing Places facilities

The council says that would mean more classes, year-round pitches for clubs, schools and women’s and girls’ teams, and more support for people managing long-term health conditions.

Why the price went up

The main building work was tendered in June. All three shortlisted contractors bid by 7 August, and the report says the “initial normalised tendered costs exceeded the available project budget”. It does not say by how much. At the committee’s 16 September meeting Cllr Quirk “requested the percentage over budget the tenders came back as”, and then abstained on that item’s recommendations, which passed by eight votes to none (minutes, 16 September). The business case and the pitch tender report are confidential appendices, and the agenda ends with an item to exclude the press and public (agenda).

The project team then went through the design to bring the cost down. The council also brought in Stace LLP in September as independent project and commercial adviser. Even after that exercise, the committee is being asked to recommend another £3,819,099.52 to Full Council “to meet any residual costs arising from the value-engineering, detailed design and construction process”.

What changed since planning permission

The scheme we reported in September included a spa. The report lists three principal changes:

The gym would be on the ground floor and the four activity rooms on the existing first floor. Toilets for people using the 3G pitches would open from outside. The committee is also being asked to approve the design changes and allow any amendments needed through planning, and the risk appendix lists a Section 73 planning amendment as one possibility.

Neither the council’s announcement nor the committee report mentions the two squash courts or the boxing club room. The planning report in September said those would be demolished and not replaced.

Where the money comes from

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The report puts the approved budget at £25m, with £2m expected from a grant, leaving £23m for the council. The new figures are:

• Total cost: not more than £29,019,099.52, up about 16% on our arithmetic
• Football Foundation grant: £2.2m, confirmed on 8 October, towards the pitches and related facilities
• Council’s share: £26,819,099.52, up £3.82m or about 17%

The money would come from the grant and the council’s available capital resources, “with residual borrowing used where required”. The report says using its cash would reduce the investment income the council earns, and any borrowing would bring a running cost.

The council’s case is partly what happens if it does nothing. The report estimates the existing building needs about £12m of maintenance and replacement over the next 10 years. It forecasts a cash return of 3.0% to 3.4% a year on the council’s £26.82m, which is roughly £805,000 to £912,000 on our arithmetic. Officers conclude the scheme is “financially supportable but remains a significant financial commitment with material delivery risks”, and say it “should therefore not be regarded as being without financial risk”.

Who would build it

The centre has been run by Sport and Leisure Management Ltd, which trades as Everyone Active, under a leisure contract that began on 1 April 2025. The council would stay as landowner, client and funder. Two separate contracts would deliver the work:

• The centre and car parks. Everyone Active would become development manager under a contract worth up to £24,065,845.04. It would then sign a design and build contract with Vincent Stokes, the preferred contractor from its tender, which was scored 60% on cost and 40% on quality. Any increase above that price would need further council approval.
• The three pitches. A contract worth £2,115,458.38 would go to Support in Sport, the highest scorer at 94% among the six providers that tendered through the Football Foundation’s framework. The report says the pitches cannot go ahead if the Everyone Active agreement is not approved.

Those two contracts add up to £26.18m. The public report does not itemise the remaining £2.84m of the total.

The risks in the papers

The risk appendix lists escalating costs, late delivery and legal challenge. It also records under delivery risk that Everyone Active’s chosen contractor has “a lower financial turnover typically required for a project capital value of £20m”. The stated answer is that the contract should insulate the council from that risk. The main report describes the protections planned, including a performance bond, a parent-company guarantee where required, damages for delay and council step-in rights.

Some costs remain unsettled. The report says a “limited number of residual risks cannot yet be fully priced or confirmed”, mainly the condition of the existing building and utilities, the temporary works needed to keep the centre open, and coordination with the pitch works. It expects “the vast majority” of those to be resolved by the time the contract is signed.

The grant comes with conditions, too. These include signed agreements with partner clubs, approval of the programme of use and pricing policy, a publicly accessible defibrillator and delivery of agreed women’s and girls’ football outcomes. The football side is modelled to break even on about £241,000 of income a year, including £86,000 paid into a fund to replace the pitches when they wear out, and any surplus must go back into football.

Who has to move out

The council says the centre will stay open as far as possible during the work, but businesses leasing space need to leave before building starts. It says it has been offering all displaced tenants support to find new premises. Brentwood Community Radio has moved, and the Talking Newspaper has a new location at the Town Hall to relocate to in December.

The committee report is blunter about what this involves. Notices have been served on all affected tenants and occupiers, and “a small number of cases remain subject to ongoing legal or relocation discussions”. It calls vacant possession “a key requirement” before the main works can begin, and warns that delay could add cost. The list of tenants is in a confidential appendix, and the report says it is principally each tenant’s responsibility to find new premises.

What the council expects to get

The centre takes more than 350,000 visits a year and is, the report says, the only pay and play facility in the borough. About 69% of its unique users have a Brentwood postcode.

The council is aiming for around 5,900 more people to be regularly active there, a rise of about 50%. In the report’s figures that means going from 11,873 “unique social value participants” to about 17,809, which it values at an extra £1.84m of social value a year. That figure is an estimate of wider benefit and not money the council receives. The report says the projections rest on results at comparable Everyone Active sites and should be checked once the centre reopens.

Item 6 on the same agenda concerns the centre as well. It would change how the leisure contract is structured, so that Everyone Active acts as the council’s agent, for VAT reasons. The report says customers should see little or no disruption, and the financial detail is confidential.

What it means for you

• Nothing is final on 12 November. Every recommendation is subject to Full Council agreeing the extra £3.82m.
• The Full Council date is not given. The report does not name a meeting. The Extraordinary Council on 11 November lists only an honorary title, and the next ordinary meeting on the council’s calendar is 9 December. The Football Foundation offer must be accepted within two months of its letter of 8 October, so the two dates are close.
• No building dates yet. The report’s timeline lists both the start on site and project completion as “TBC”.
• If you use the centre, the contract would require it to stay open “as far as reasonably practicable”, with an agreed plan for phasing, access, safety and communications. The pool hall refurbishment finished in June, so that part is done.
• If you want to watch, the meeting is broadcast live on YouTube from 7pm and the full papers are online.

We will report the committee’s decision. Other council schemes are on our Brentwood planning news page.

Sources

• Brentwood Borough Council: Decision coming on £29m plans for new-look Brentwood Centre, 4 November 2026
• Brentwood Centre Masterplan and Revised Business Case, Assets and Strategy Committee, 12 November 2026
• Appendix A, risk summary
• Appendix B, equality impact assessment
• Leisure Services Agency Model report, item 6
• Minutes, Assets and Strategy Committee, 16 September 2026
• Officer report, 26/00465/FUL, Planning Committee, 15 September 2026