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Voreda House was purchased by the former Eden District Council to provide a modern, fit-for purpose single site location for local government operations in the Eden area.
The Voreda House Programme is an ambitious project to retrofit an existing office building in the centre of Penrith to PassivHaus standards within a high-quality working environment.
Passivhaus is a voluntary standard for achieving high energy efficiency in a building in order to reduce energy demands and CO2 emissions. Some of the key energy saving features for Voreda House include triple glazed windows, high performance insulation, photovoltaic solar panels and air source heat pumps.
 In addition to providing comfortable, flexible and modern office space for agile staff working and a welcoming environment for residents to access their council services, Voreda House has also been designed to provide flexible meeting and office space.
The work to retrofit Voreda House, which began at the end of March last year, is ongoing. The new flat roof installation will be completed this month, alongside the installation of windows to ensure the building is watertight. The drainage work is complete and the fitting of the external cladding continues. As the project moves into the summer months, the internal works will start to take shape and work on the external groundworks will begin.
Since vesting day, the council has been reviewing the project with the contractor to ensure that Voreda House is aligned with the needs and ambitions of the new authority for its staff, members and residents.
That process has now been successfully concluded and we can confirm that the completion of the construction phase of the Voreda House Programme is scheduled for the end of September 2023. Once construction has been completed, we can then begin the commissioning and familiarisation phase of the project, prior to occupation.
 This phase marks the beginning of the fit out of the building, with fixtures, fittings and furniture being installed. There will then be an ICT fit out, ahead of operational testing to ensure that everything is working as expected.
Once this phase has been completed, we will begin the process of transferring staff into Voreda House. It is anticipated that this will begin in January 2024, with small numbers of staff moving into the building initially, whilst we continue to conduct operational testing and more staff are gradually transferred. Staff at the Town Hall and Mansion House will remain in these buildings until advised of move dates prior to January 2024. This process will conclude at the end of March 2024, when the final transfer of staff will take place, meaning the building is fully commissioned, open to staff, members and the public as it begins its normal operational life.
 Image descriptions: External and internal images of Voreda House
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