Wokingham council wants to turn Mulberry Business Park into 113 social-rent homes in a £35m scheme, and The Cowshed would have to leave. Executive decides 26 Nov.
Wokingham Borough Council wants to turn Mulberry Business Park into 113 homes for social rent. The scheme would cost up to £35 million. It would also mean the end of The Cowshed’s base at Rubra 2, the building the crisis charity has used rent-free since July 2023.
The plan is set out in a report for the council’s Executive, which decides on Thursday 26 November. Councillors on the Community and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee look at it first, at 7pm on Wednesday 4 November (Wokingham Borough Council, scrutiny agenda, 4 November 2026).
The council announced the proposal on 29 October (Wokingham Borough Council, 29 October 2026). Its announcement does not say what the plan means for The Cowshed. The report does.
What is proposed
Mulberry Business Park is a 1980s office park on Fishponds Road, south of the town centre. It has three buildings: Alba House, Rubra One and Rubra Two (Executive report, Future Use of Mulberry Business Park).
The council’s housing account would buy the site from its general budget at market value, about £3.24 million, and redevelop it. The report proposes:
- 68 homes made by converting the existing office buildings
- 45 more homes in extra floors and new infill buildings
- all 113 for social rent, for people on the council’s housing lists
The homes would be split by need:
The council says the homes could include accessible flats, care-leaver accommodation and specialist adult social care housing.
Why the council wants out of offices
The council bought the park in October 2018 as an investment. It cost £10.65 million including fees, and it was fully let, bringing in £712,000 a year in rent.
Office demand fell after the pandemic. As of October 2026 only one tenant pays rent: Acorah Software Products, at about £85,000 a year. Alba House and part of Rubra One are empty. Two charities occupy space for nothing.
The report puts the yearly position like this:
| Item | Per year |
|---|---|
| Rent coming in | £85,000 |
| Running costs (rates, insurance, utilities, service charge) | £331,000 |
| Interest and debt repayment on the purchase | £492,000 |
| Net cost to the council’s general budget | £738,000 |
The site was valued at £3.24 million in 2026. The council still owes £9.1 million on the original purchase. Selling at that value would leave about £5.85 million of debt behind, the report says.
The options the council looked at
Officers scored three main options:
- Keep it as offices. It would need about £1.5 million of refurbishment to attract tenants, with no guarantee they would come.
- Sell the freehold. It would raise less than the debt, and the council would lose control of what happens next.
- Turn it into social housing. This is the recommended option.
The report says the housing option is the only one that saves the general budget money. It counts an estimated £370,000 a year avoided in adult social care and £257,000 in children’s services, from fewer costly placements outside the borough. After the remaining debt costs, it puts the saving at £311,000 a year. Keeping the offices would go on costing £738,000 a year.
What it means for The Cowshed
The Cowshed gives clothing and household essentials to people in hardship across Berkshire. Its head office is at Rubra 2 (The Cowshed).
The report says the charity sent the council a proposal on 6 October. It offered:
- a lease of at least five years on Rubra 2, with a rent stepping up to £40,000 a year by year five
- a possible commissioning deal for services to Wokingham residents
- talks about turning the whole park into a hub for charities and public services
Officers scored that option below the housing scheme. They also said any charity use of council buildings at below-market rent now has to go through an open bidding process under the council’s Charitable Lets policy. So The Cowshed could not be sure of winning the space even if the offices stayed (Outline business case, Appendix A).
The business case records figures from the charity’s proposal:
- more than £500,000 of goods and direct support for Wokingham residents each year, by the charity’s estimate
- 1,041 of the 9,218 people helped through its main referral service last year lived in the borough, 11.1%
- more than 400 volunteers, most from the Wokingham area
The council did not include the £500,000 in its sums. It says it has not verified the figure.
The council’s risk register for the scheme lists “potential reputational risk and damaged relationships” with voluntary groups because The Cowshed would have to leave. The tenancy schedule shows the charity on a nil-rent arrangement with a three-month break clause on either side.
The Cowshed’s website carries no statement on the plan. A Change.org petition asking the council to recognise “the full value” of its work had 4,365 signatures on 31 October (Change.org). We covered the background in September: The Cowshed and the Rubra 2 decision.
How it would be paid for
The report asks the Executive for a budget of up to £35 million. Its own cost table adds up to £32.1 million:
| Cost | Funding | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Buying the site from the general budget | £3.24m | Government or other grant | £12.8m |
| Building works | £22.2m | Council housing subsidy | £2.3m |
| Fees and other costs | £6.7m | Borrowing | £17m |
The grant is not secured. If it falls short, the report says the scheme would come back to the Executive for a new funding decision.
The timetable
If the Executive agrees, the business case sets out:
- Dec 2026 to Feb 2027: hire designers and consultants
- June 2027: first planning application, for the conversion
- June 2027 to June 2028: move existing tenants out
- Sept 2027 to May 2028: second planning application, for the extra floors and new buildings
- October 2028: building starts
- May 2030: homes finished, with lettings from June 2030
Planning is not certain. The business case notes the site is earmarked for employment use in the new Local Plan, which is due to be adopted in 2027.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes yet. The Cowshed is still operating from Rubra 2, and no move date has been set.
- If you want a say, the scrutiny meeting on 4 November is open to the public. Residents can also submit questions to the Executive before its 26 November meeting; the council’s meetings pages give the deadline.
- If you are on the housing register, these would be council homes let by need, but not before mid-2030.
- If you rely on The Cowshed, nothing it has published changes its service. We will report any move the charity announces.
Our planning news page tracks housing decisions across the borough.
Have your say