00:00So, with Councillor Mohamed Jamil here, can you just explain the decision that was made today by Cabinet regarding the Hilton Hotel and why now is the best time for you to put it on the market?
00:11Yeah, what we've decided as a Cabinet today is to authorise the administrators and ask them to sell the Hilton Hotel building as it is.
00:21We've done this in order to try and get back as much money for the Council from the loan that we took out.
00:28We think this is the best course of action. Any other option would have either cost the Council more or would have meant that that asset would have sat there and nothing would have happened.
00:39It's just I'm delighted that Cabinet colleagues have agreed. We think that we can end this saga, hopefully within the next 12 months, and get some money back from the Council.
00:50Yeah, and are you able to sort of reveal an idea of what an ideal sum would be?
00:54As much money as I can get. The beauty of this is that we've had lots of interest, and the administrators have told us that they've had a lot of interest.
01:05We're hoping that it will be a hotel. However, it's up to whoever buys the building. We are selling it as it is.
01:13It's been the hotel itself. It's been built as a hotel, and hopefully it will be completed as a hotel, because we need a hotel on that site.
01:22And Hilton have said that they still want to give it the Hilton name.
01:26So we will get as much money as we can. Probably not get back what we spent on it, but it means that it's an end to this saga, and then we can move forward and meet the needs of the residents of this city.
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