New era for building society as it relocates headquarters

Leeds Building Society has relocated to its new headquarters in Sovereign Street after more than 80 years in its prominent location at Albion Street’s junction with The Headrow.

The new home for the UK’s fifth-largest building society is barely a mile from where the mutual was founded in Holbeck in 1875 and stands next to the River Aire in the South Bank area of Leeds.

In line with all the Society’s premises nationally, Sovereign Street is Covid-secure so current social distancing rules limit occupancy to around a third of the workforce usually based in central Leeds. However under normal conditions, the building can comfortably accommodate almost 1,000 colleagues who were located at the society’s previous three office sites nearby.

Richard Fearon, Leeds Building Society’s chief executive officer, was among the first colleagues to start working from Sovereign Street and said many of the building’s benefits were immediately apparent.

“The work and break-out spaces are light, airy and thoughtfully-designed to provide colleagues with inspiring and comfortable surroundings which support the Society’s collaborative working culture,” he explained.

“It was always important for the building to offer plenty of flexibility to accommodate new and evolving ways of working, to help us to future-proof our headquarters for many decades to come.

“The pandemic already has put that flexibility to the test, even as floor layouts were being planned and designed, and our move project team responded with creative and practical solutions to overcome each challenge.

“While lockdowns and social distancing have led to changes to the moving-in process and timescales, this major investment in the future of the Society, and in Leeds city centre, was delivered on time and on budget and will reduce our environmental impact as it also enables more efficient ways of working.

“The Society’s success in recent years has driven our growth, and the resulting requirement for extra office space beyond the capacity of our former Albion Street building, so this move uniting all our back-office Leeds teams has been in the planning for some time.”