Almost £1.5 million is being spent on essential improvements at one of Bradford Council’s key city centre office buildings as a new boiler, lifts and windows are to be installed.

In recent weeks scaffolding has gone up around Britannia House in order to replace the building’s many windows with the work expected to cost £1 million. A further £240,000 has been spent on a new boiler, and £210,000 has been set aside for three lifts to be replaced.

The move is part of a Council programme to reorganise its office space, selling off buildings it no longer needs. In the city centre, office accommodation will focus on three main buildings – City Hall, Britannia House and Jacob’s Well.

But the location of the scaffolding, which will need to stay in place until February, has already angered one business on Bridge Street which operates out of the ground floor of Britannia House.

Mohammed Ayyub, owner of Mobile Xtreme, said his business lost money for the first time this year when the path outside his shop was narrowed by contractors storing scaffolding.

“For two weeks the path was so narrow outside nobody could stop in front of the shop look at our window displays. It was so narrow people would have to wait on one side for someone else to come through and sales definitely dropped because of it.”

He claims the Council had agreed to put up a banner letting people know his shop was still open, but that has yet to happen.

“I’ve contacted the Council but no one’s been out to see me,” he said.

“For two weeks we have suffered and not heard a thing. It’s been so bad we lost a lot of money – it’s first time this year we’ve actually lost money. I want them to compensate me.

“We’re getting up towards Christmas – we wait all year for Christmas time and we can’t be doing with something like this. The path has been widened a bit now so hopefully things will improve.

“I think the scaffolding puts people off though.”

A Council spokesman said: "Unfortunately we do have to use scaffolding to replace the windows which are part of our essential maintenance programme for the building. We have tried to accommodate the traders' needs by widening the pavement for shoppers to gain better access and we will install a banner very soon emphasising that the neighbouring shops are still open for business.”

Earlier this year both the Council’s customer service centre and the visitor information centre relocated to take up space in the Council-owned Britannia House.