Flats plan for aparthotel after business changes

A decline in the number of business travellers to Reading town centre means an aparthotel is "no longer commercially sustainable" and should be turned into flats, its owner has said.

City Wall House in West Street has 31 apartments but TA Fisher Ltd said the "substantial change in the business world" after Brexit and the Covid pandemic meant they were used less.

It has applied to change the classification of the building to residential accommodation, which the company said would help to provide housing "at the lower end of the housing market".

Reading Borough Council will decide the application in due course.

The building is managed by House of Fisher, which runs another aparthotel in Reading and others in Newbury, Bracknell, Basingstoke, Farnborough and Camberley.

TA Fisher said in a document submitted to the council that City Wall House was originally designed for "transient business travellers linked to the burgeoning IT, telecoms and media markets in Reading and as a commuter base for those working in London".