Office Fit-Out Slough

Office fit-out in Slough follows where the council wants offices to be. Core Policy 5 of the Core Strategy, written in the old use classes, steers intensive employment uses such as B1(a) offices to the town centre; offices now sit in Class E. Slough Trading Estate is the other business landmark. The work we take on is the smaller end: a floor above shops, a town centre suite, a studio or a professional office, fitted to your landlord's consent and building control approval.

For Slough, the construction part of an office fit-out is published at £70 to £120 per sq ft as a UK guide, and an all-in London office fit-out at £148 to £359 per sq ft (Oktra and Cushman and Wakefield, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Slough: we build the office partitions, ceilings, lighting and finishes as one contract and coordinate the IT supplier and specialist trades around them.

Where Slough office space sits and what gets fitted out

The town centre is the policy home for Slough offices. Core Policy 5 directs intensive employment uses such as B1(a) offices there, and saved policy S1 names Slough town centre as the sub-regional centre. That old office class now sits within Class E, so upper floor space already in Class E use can become an office without planning permission for the use, unless a condition restricts it. A floor above a shop may be a flat, though, and turning a home into an office needs planning permission. Suites and small professional offices are the scale we work at.

If the building is listed, the works themselves are a separate question: anything that affects its character, inside or out, needs listed building consent from Slough Borough Council, and carrying it out without consent is a criminal offence.

Slough Trading Estate is the other place office space can come up, for example offices attached to a warehouse or a trade counter unit. There the fit-out tends to be a refresh of a first floor office and its welfare facilities rather than a new floor plate. In both settings we survey the existing ceilings, risers, toilets and escape stairs first, because they decide how much of the layout can change before building control is involved.

Cat A, Cat B and the landlord's licence in Slough

Two terms decide the scope of a Slough office job. Cat A is the landlord's base finish: open floor, suspended ceiling, lighting, raised floor or trunking, heating and cooling, and working toilets. Cat B is your layout on top of it: partitions and glazed screens, meeting rooms, a tea point or kitchenette, extra small power, finishes and internal signage. We price Cat B against the Cat A you inherit, and coordinate data cabling with your IT supplier so containment goes in before ceilings close.

The lease sets the rules before any wall goes up. An office lease normally requires the landlord's licence for alterations, with drawings and a method statement, and they say what has to be removed at the end. Keep a record of what is installed, because dilapidations and reinstatement at lease end are costed against it. We hand over a written record and photographs of the added items so the exit on a Slough lease is easier to agree.

Building control for a Slough office fit-out

Non-domestic work in Slough goes to Slough Borough Council's own building control service, which offers a full plan check, a building notice, regularisation or reversion from an approved inspector. For an office, a building notice is not available because the premises fall under fire safety legislation, so the route is a full plan check or a registered approver. Slough Building Control quotes each project individually. Part B escape routes, Part M access and Part L lighting shape the drawings behind that quote.

Timing matters in an occupied building. Slough Building Control says the inspection plan should normally arrive within 10 working days, and site visits should be requested 24 hours ahead. We fix those inspection points into the programme, and agree with the landlord when noisy strip-out, drilling and core cutting can run without disturbing the other tenants. As a business client you carry duties of your own under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations, including allowing enough time for the work.

Landlord systems and mixed buildings for a Slough office tenant

In a Slough office the tenant rarely owns the systems it depends on. The fire alarm, shared heating or cooling and the incoming supplies usually stay with the landlord and are recovered through the service charge. A new partition that needs an extra detector or a moved radiator is therefore agreed with the managing agent first, and we list each interface in the scope. The planning background is context only: Slough publishes no Article 4 direction removing the prior approval route from Class E to homes, which is why some buildings are part offices and part flats.

For an office tenant in a mixed building, it changes the practical rules. Flats above or beside the suite mean quieter hours for strip-out, fire separation that must not be disturbed, and possibly a higher-risk building, which Slough Building Control does not handle. Where a building reaches at least 18m or 7 storeys with two or more dwellings, the Building Safety Regulator is the body, so we confirm that before the programme is set.

• Acoustic partitions and door seals for private meeting rooms
• Fire doors, self-closers and fire stopping to the office fire strategy
• Small power to desks, floor boxes and perimeter trunking

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 15 statistical areas in Slough. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If you are weighing up options for your Slough property, it is worth reading commercial fit-out in Slough, office fit-out in Windsor, what a main building contractor does, what a snagging list covers, our London office fit-out page and Choosing a Builder.

The GS Renovation Difference in Slough

An office fit-out is judged on the day your team moves in. We take the space from strip-out to handover in one sequence: partitions, ceilings, first fix for the registered electrician and your data installer, finishes, kitchenette and joinery. You get a written programme at the start and one point of contact. We build to the drawings your landlord has approved, keep the building control paperwork in order, and leave you a record of what was installed for the lease file.

• A written scope and programme agreed before work starts
• Data cable routes agreed with your IT supplier before partitions are boarded
• Lease reinstatement clauses read before any partition is fixed to the structure

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254).