The eventual home of the Treasury’s Darlington hub will be completed in 2027, a year later than planned, the Government Property Agency has said.
Construction on the hub’s new site will begin later this year, the GPA has said, after signing a pre-construction services agreement with the outsourcing group Kier.
The announcement comes after the GPA bought its preferred site for the hub – a car park on Brunswick Street at the edge of Darlington town centre – in September.
At the time, construction on the site was expected to be completed in 2026.
The government submitted a planning application for the building in March, saying at the time it would spend around £118m on the project. Subject to planning consent being granted, construction is scheduled to start at the end of this year.
The Brunswick Street hub will become part of the Darlington Economic Campus, which also includes Feethams House and Bishopsgate House. Feethams House is currently serving as the temporary base for the hub, plans for which were announced by then-chancellor Rishi Sunak in 2021.
The hub will become the GPA’s first new-build freehold building, as it will own the four-storey building and the land in its entirety.
It will accommodate some 1,400 civil servants in total. Along with Treasury staff, it will be home to civil servants from the Department for Business and Trade; the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; the Office for National Statistics; the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; the Competition and Markets Authority; the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero; and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology; and the Department for Education, which already has a Darlington base.
It is part of the government’s Places for Growth strategy, which aims to diversify the civil service’s geographical footprint and relocate 22,000 jobs out of London by 2030.
Clive Anderson, director of capital projects at the Government Property Agency, said: “The GPA is looking forward to working with Kier Construction on this exceptional freehold project to deliver a next-generation government hub at the DEC.
“This development will continue to support levelling up and Places for Growth, creating considerable regional economic benefit as well as helping to transform the civil service to better represent the public we serve.”
Kier and the GPA will now begin work to develop the design for the hub and engage with the supply chain to prepare for construction.
Stuart Togwell, group managing director of Kier Construction, said the partnership would “create an exemplar building to support and create a new flagship regional hub for the government and a sustainable, inclusive and collaborative environment” for civil servants.
“Our strong regional footprint also means we will deliver the scheme through local supply chains and create employment opportunities including apprenticeships,” he added.