Jacob Rees-Mogg has confirmed that thousands of civil servants are set to be relocated to Manchester from 2025, in a new state of the art building.
This follows the relocation of more than 700 roles to the city, across a number of government departments and is part of the Places for Growth programme. The Places for Growth programme will see 22,000 civil service roles moved out of the London by 2030, more than 2,500 of which will be moving to Manchester.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency, said:
“The First Street development reaffirms Her Majesty’s Government’s long-term commitment to Manchester. The Places for Growth programme is delivering high quality government jobs across the whole country and ensuring that Whitehall can take advantage of the wisdom and experience from people all over the United Kingdom.
This new site will provide a home for civil servants from at least four different government departments, making it one of the largest hubs for cross-government collaboration and operation outside London.
By the time this site opens in 2025, 2,500 civil servants will have been relocated from Greater London to Manchester. I am pleased that the government has secured them a new home with office working at its heart, which will bring tens of millions of pounds to the Greater Manchester economy.”
John Hughes, Managing Director at Ask Real Estate, also spoke about how this transition can contribute to Manchester’s net zero goals:
“With Manchester’s target to be a zero-carbon city by 2038, sustainability and wellbeing have been firmly considered and embedded into the design at the forefront of the plans. The vision of the scheme was to deliver an office building that can be net zero carbon in operation, and this building will do exactly that.”
This move is expected to generate £31 million in economic benefits for the city, thanks to increased footfall and spending from staff and departments that are being relocated include the Cabinet Office, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports, Department for Education and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
