Kent County Council Still Rents £60k Brussels Office Under Reform UK as £140m Cuts Loom

Kent County Council (KCC) is facing renewed criticism after it emerged the authority continues to rent office space in Brussels – nearly five years after the UK formally left the European Union – at a total annual cost of almost £59,300.

Figures obtained from council records for 2024/25 reveal that KCC paid £18,004 in rent or property charges for its base at Rue de la Science 14A, 1040 Brussels, Belgium, alongside £40,904 for salaries and employment expenses, £337 for mobile phone use, and minor charges for banking. The overall operating cost reached £59,251 for the year.

The Brussels premises are shared with the Hauts-de-France Region, which maintains a permanent presence in the city through its Mission auprès de l’Union européenne (MUE). The building sits in the heart of the EU quarter – just eight minutes from the European Parliament and nine minutes from the European Commission’s offices – underlining its proximity to the very institutions from which the UK withdrew in late Dec 2020.

Redundancies at Home

The revelation comes in the same financial year that KCC carried out 220 exit packages and redundancies at a total cost of£3.8 million. The axing of these jobs was announced in February 2024 as part of urgent cost-cutting measures, but implemented in the 2024/25 financial year. For many residents, the juxtaposition is stark: while millions are being spent on severance and services are being cut, taxpayers are still funding an overseas office whose role is far less clear in a post-Brexit world.

A Brexit-Era Anachronism

The UK formally left the EU at 11pm on 31 December 2020, ending its formal representation in Brussels institutions. Yet KCC’s leased space in the Belgian capital remains in operation. Enquiries confirmed that, as of 8 August 2025, KCC still rents this office – raising the obvious question: why does an anti-EU Reform UK-led council still believe it needs a presence a few streets from the European Commission?

One long-standing KCC watcher described the arrangement as “a bizarre relic of the past,” adding:

“The former and present leadership at KCC campaigned against EU institutions – but still pay to keep an office within a few streets of the European Commission and European Parliament.”

Council’s Justification

When previously challenged about the cost, KCC has argued that the office supports ongoing international partnerships and trade opportunities, especially with the near continent, and helps lobby for Kent’s interests in European funding programmes still accessible to UK organisations.

However, these explanations have not silenced critics, who question whether such work could be done more cost-effectively – or from Kent itself. They also note that European funding has been sharply reduced since Brexit, making the strategic value of a permanent Brussels base increasingly questionable.

Political Irony

The optics are uncomfortable for the Reform UK-led administration. A party whose leaders regularly denounce the “EU” now finds itself defending an ongoing financial commitment to a presence in Brussels. Critics have seized on this as a sign of political inconsistency.

One current KCC Cllr commented:

“When council staff are losing their jobs and services are being squeezed, it’s beyond hypocrisy for an anti-EU Reform UK council to continue spending money on an office in the heart of Brussels. It’s not just the wrong priority in the wrong place – it makes a mockery of everything they claim to stand for.”

The Bigger Picture

KCC is under acute financial strain, facing a budget gap of tens of millions of pounds in the coming years. The council has already slashed bus subsidies, youth services, and highway maintenance. Against that backdrop, the Brussels office has become a symbolic flashpoint in the debate over what constitutes essential spending.

And with £140 million worth of cuts announced, the question becomes even sharper: how can a Reform UK-led authority justify keeping an office in Brussels while making such deep reductions to local services.

The Shepway Vox Team

Delightfully Delicious Dissent