SWINDON’S economy will suffer if nothing is done to rectify the town’s dwindling supply of upmarket office space, according to property expert Andrew Kilpatrick.

Andrew, the managing director of Kilpatrick & Co, in Commercial Road, has a stark warning for the town’s future prosperity if the wait for new builds or refurbishments goes on.

The concerns arise from the few options open to businesses looking to relocate or expand in the town.

And he says they will leave Swindon as a result.

“The lack of suitable office buildings in Swindon could lead to a loss of economic activity from Swindon, if existing businesses are unable to find suitable relocation opportunities and so are forced to move out of town,” he said.

“The council hasn’t got any money and we can’t expect them to go out and start building buildings.

“Through Forward Swindon they have been trying to encourage new investment, but the council haven’t got the financial power to do it, so there’s limitations to what they can actually do.

“The difficulty is, because of the recession, it’s very difficult for developers to get funding for development of new office buildings until they have got an occupier.

“All the banks are ultra cautious about lending money on property.

He said it was a chicken and egg situation, as until a business committed to a project no one could get the funding to build it.”

One example of a businesses leaving the town, is Swindon Silicon Systems,which has relocated from Swindon to Royal Wootton Bassett.

Andrew said the firm had been based across three sites in Swindon and wanted to relocate under one roof, but failed to find any suitable options in the town.

Andrew said a variety of solicitors and accountancy firms in Swindon were looking to relocate or expand, but saw no viable options in the town.

His own firm is one of those looking to relocate, butwhich is unable to establish any suitable options for a move.

One project which has progressed recently is the development at Kimmerfields and office space is set to form a large part of any building work going on there.

“The difficulty is, the development has such a long lead-in time,” Andrew said.

“Businesses looking to move or relocate are looking at quite a short time frame.

“They’re not prepared to wait three or four years for something to happen because they can get to the same thing out of town within three months.

“The problem is getting it kick-started. If they had an office building already built they would find an occupier.

“The difficulty in building speculatively is nobody can take that risk. They are hanging on for miracles to happen.”

But Coun Garry Perkins (Con, Haydon Wick), the cabinet member for economy, regeneration and skills, disagrees with him and says hebelieves firms will commit themselves to prospective office space before it is actually built.

“If they’re a large user, that’s the way they want it to go,” he said.

“They want to be involved in how it looks. That’s the way the business works at the moment.”