City being eyed as Civil Service hub

MANCHESTER is a frontrunner in the cluster of regional cities which could house significant numbers of government staff as part of cost-cutting moves to decentralise the Civil Service away from London.

The Government Property Unit is reported to be eyeing sites in Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool totalling 1.8 million sq ft and in Glasgow totalling 600,000sq ft.

However, it is Manchester where developers are pitching to the Government with several big hitting agents involved.

According to Property Week, offices currently in the running are Hermes and The Co-operative Group’s NOMA; Patrizia’s First Street; Bruntwood and Select Property Group’s Circle Square, FairBriar International’s Middlewood Locks in Salford, and English Cities Fund’s New Bailey.

Regeneration specialist U+I’s £850m Mayfield Quarter project in Manchester is also likely to be a contender.

Knight Frank, Savills, Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers International have all been named as agents believed to be working on the developments.

Up to 950,000 sq ft of space will be built over three phases for the Civil Service with the first phase alone possibly resulting in £100m of development.

According to sources, phase one is for 350,000 sq ft, but there is not that much space available in existing buildings.

In London, agents have got the jitters over plans by Cabinet Office minister Ben Gummer for the Civil Service to leave 75% of central Government sites, outlined by his predecessor Matthew Hancock in February.

This would see its portfolio shrink from 800 offices to 200 by 2023.

According to Hancock, the Government estate has already been reduced by more than 21.5 million sq ft since the launch of the GPU in 2010. This has saved more than £750m in running costs and accumulated £1.8bn in asset sales in five-and-a-half years.

Long term, the GPU’s intention is to create 22 strategic hubs which will see Government departments share buildings.

Meanwhile the HM Revenue & Customs’ Building our Future programme will reduced its 170 offices to 13 regional centres in which HMRC will be the biggest tenant.

A spokesperson for HMRC has refused to comment on the speculation when contacted by TheBusinessDesk

Leeds has been touted as likely to house the HMRC, while the future home of Department of Health staff is between two or three potential sites.