CILIP Relocation Plans

Welcome to the home page for the project to relocate CILIP to new premises by the end of 2022. This page has been provided to keep members and stakeholders up-to-date on progress with our relocation.

Message from John Trevor-Allen, Chair of CILIP Board

The decision to relocate CILIP to new premises by the end of 2022 has been the subject of careful consideration by the CILIP Board since late 2020. We have taken legal and professional advice and are satisfied that this decision is in the best interests of our members.

The relocation of our professional body presents us with an opportunity to do things differently. The pandemic has shown us that CILIP can deliver better value and greater impact for members when it works in a more distributed way.

We know from our 2018 Membership Research that so much of the value of our professional association happens in the Devolved Nations and English regions, so this move will present us with the opportunity to re-balance our support beyond London and the South East.

By releasing the value of the existing building, we can address the long-standing deficit on the Pension Scheme that we inherited. In the process, we will also create an endowment that will ensure that we can continue to meet the needs of future generations of professionals.

The CILIP Trustees are grateful for the trust and confidence that you have invested in us as a CILIP member. We will use this page to keep you up-to-date on developments with the relocation, so do please check back regularly.

With best regards,

John Trevor-Allen, Chair, CILIP

Interim update (20/06/2022)

Plans for CILIP's relocation are progressing fast, and we would like to thank our members for your engagement and support in this challenging project.

As of June 2022, we have reached the end of 'Stage 3' of the project, and are about to move into Stage 4, which will see us complete the terms of sale with the new purchaser of our premises at 7 Ridgmount Street.

During Stages 2 and 3, we completed the following actions:

• Appointed Allsop Ltd as the Sales Agent for Ridgmount Street
• Commissioned all necessary legal advice on the sale of the building as a charitable asset
• Prepared the building for sale, including undertaking surveys to confirm the condition of the building
• Marketed the building as a highly attractive, tenanted property at the heart of Bloomsbury
• Invited competitive bids for the purchase of the property (3 rounds of bidding now concluded)

Now that we have received attractive 'proceedable' bids for the property, we are commissioning further specialist advice to ensure that we maximise the value of the building for the membership.

Once a preferred bidder has been approved by the Board, we will enter into formal negotiations with them, including the confirmation of 'exchange' and 'completion' dates for the sale.

CILIP will be relocating by the end of the calendar year. However, we know that the building at Ridgmount Street holds special meaning for many of our members, so we plan to hold a series of open days and farewell events to mark our departure after 60 years!

At the same time, we are finalising plans for the next step in our relocation. The Board has asked us to secure appropriate short-term accommodation if we need to move out before our future premises are secured, and further information on this process will be posted here shortly.

Member FAQ

What is happening?

As CILIP looks ahead to a new 5-year Strategy, the Board of Trustees has decided to begin the process of relocating the organisation to new premises that are more appropriate to our future way of working.

They have mandated the Chief Executive and Senior Leadership Team to implement this process, with the aim of having relocated to new premises by the end of next year.

Where will CILIP be relocating?

CILIP has developed a Statement of Requirements which captures our expectations of our future premises in terms of space, scale and facilities. Given the speed of exchange and completion, it is likely that the organisation will seek to move into interim premises for a period of 18-24 months, giving us time for an exhaustive search (or potentially to agree terms to build a new space or refurbish an existing one.

Will CILIP take the opportunity to move out of London?

In practice, we anticipate that the association will continue to need to maintain a presence in Central London to support some of our key activities including advocacy, lobbying and external relations.

However, we do want to ensure that this relocation is an opportunity to address the long-standing perception of CILIP as a London-centric organisation. Our aim in setting out the plans for relocation will be to ensure that every member is able to benefit from their membership on equal terms, wherever they live and work.

Is CILIP in financial trouble?

No. Thanks to the support of our Member Networks and Devolved Nations, the hard work of CILIP staff and Trustees, the use of the Furlough Scheme and two generous grants from the Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund, CILIP has demonstrated considerable resilience to the pandemic and was able to post a small surplus in our annual accounts for 2020.

The main financial challenge the organisation faces is the deficit on our Defined Benefit Pension Scheme (see below), and this relocation gives us an opportunity to address this challenge so that more of our members’ money can go into delivering member benefits.

What is the link to the pension scheme?

CILIP maintained a ‘Defined Benefit’ Pension Scheme that closed to new members in 2012. Because pension costs in general are going up, there is a deficit between the amount of money that was forecast for the pension in the 90’s and 00’s and how much it needs today to ensure that pensioners get the benefits to which they are entitled.

The Pension Scheme effectively co-owns our current property at Ridgmount Street. We have worked with our new Pension Trustees, 20-20 Trustees Ltd. to agree that when we sell the building, part of the money will be used to pay off the deficit, part of it will be used to secure new premises and part of it will be invested into a jointly-held endowment to secure our long-term future.

What will happen with Ridgmount Street?

The property has been marketed as a 'going concern' with sitting tenants and existing obligations. Once we complete contracts with the purchaser, the premises will become their property and they will inherit the associated leases/tenancy agreements.

Why move now? Hasn’t COVID damaged the value of property?

The advice we have received is that COVID has had a very limited impact on the value of Central London property. On the contrary, the very significant investment in Crossrail – particularly the new station at Tottenham Court Road – means that properties values within our area are significantly higher than they have been at any period in recent decades.

At the same time, the disruption of the last 18 months means that there is now more flexible and affordable space on the property market, which would better-suit the mixed-use premises that we envisage for our future operations.

Why isn’t this a member vote at the AGM?

According to guidance from the Charity Commission and our governing document (the Memorandum and Articles of Association), the decision to sell Ridgmount Street and purchase new premises is a decision that must be taken by the Trustees as part of their legal accountability for CILIP’s Charitable Assets as elected representatives of the membership.

Project timeline

We will update the following timeline as the CILIP Relocation Project progresses. Please see the graphic below for a summary of the main stages: