The number of civil servants working at the Darlington Economic Campus has surpassed 1,000.
More than 80% of the officials now working at the site – which opened in 2021 as the Treasury’s northern base – were recruited locally from the north east of England.
Staff from eight departments are based at the hub, which is eventually expected to accommodate about 1,400 civil servants in total.
As part of the Places for Growth programme, it has brought officials to the town from the Treasury; the Department for Business and Trade; the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology; the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero; the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport; the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; the Office for National Statistics; and the Competition and Markets Authority.
The campus also includes the Department for Education, which has 700 staff in Darlington and has had a base in the town since the 1960s.
The Treasury's goal is to have 335 full-time equivalent staff at its northern HQ by the end of March 2025 – including graduates and apprenticeships as well as experienced hires. As of this March, 242 Treasury staff were based at the site – 70% of whom were recruited from outside government, with the remainder coming from the civil service.
Treasury second permanent secretary Beth Russell said hitting the 1,000-civil servant mark is a “major milestone in the development of the Darlington Economic Campus”.
“The vast majority of these jobs have been filled by people from the North East, many of them new to the civil service,” she said. “This is all about offering people in the north east the opportunity to do government jobs that were traditionally only available in London, making government policy-making more reflective of the communities we serve.”
An existing civil service building, Feethams House, is currently serving as the temporary base for the campus. The Government Property Agency bought a car-park site on Brunswick Street on the edge of Darlington town centre in September 2023. Planning permission was granted in August, and construction is scheduled to begin later this year.
The Brunswick Street site – which will become the GPA’s first new-build freehold building – is expected to be completed in 2027. Feethams House and Bishopsgate House, a nearby DfE office, will also form part of the Darlington Economic Campus.
The government expects to spend around £118m on the project, according to a planning application submitted in March.
Pauline Crellin, director, exports and DBT head of campus, said: “We are so proud of the workforce that we’ve built together from the incredible talent available here in the North East, and it is fantastic to have hit this recruitment milestone.
“Darlington is a great place to work, with amazing teams, great jobs available, and skilled people doing a variety of roles and working closely with the businesses and communities we serve. Being part of the Darlington Economic Campus helps us work together across government, joining up to get local views on policymaking and to drive growth here and across the UK.”
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said the milestone was "fantastic news" and "signals to workers now, and the next generation, that you don’t need to leave the region you call home to secure a well-paid, good-quality job in the civil service".
“The 1,000 milestone also cements the region’s influence in policy and decision-making, with more civil servants than ever before being aware of our opportunities and issues, directly impacting their lives. They’re working outside of the Whitehall bubble, giving Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool a real voice to drive positive change,” he added.
Among the staff now working at the campus is Kimberley Aldrich, who joined the Treasury as a business manager in 2021 after a career in commercial shipping.
“The civil service had always appealed to me but the travel to London less so. When the Darlington Economic Campus opened it seemed like the right time to make the move. I have had the opportunity to work in the tax and welfare group which is always at the heart of the budget and being able to do that from the north is fantastic,” she said.
Jake Callaghan, who became a senior policy advisor at DBT in 2022 after working for the Royal Navy Police, said: “In the past, the civil service felt inaccessible to me, as the roles I was interested in tended to be based in London. Finding a job at the Darlington Economic Campus has given me an international-facing career, without having to move away.”