The Chancellor visits Darlington Economic Campus for the first time
Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has announced the permanent location for the new Darlington Economic Campus and pledged to ensure more Treasury roles move to the town
- Yesterday the Chancellor unveiled the Brunswick Street site in Darlington as the new permanent home of the Darlington Economic Campus.
- Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi told colleagues in Darlington he was ‘eager to see more roles’ in the town during his first working day at the campus.
- There are over 130 Treasury staff currently working in Darlington, which will increase up to 300 by 2025.
Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi yesterday announced the permanent location for the new Darlington Economic Campus and pledged to ensure more Treasury roles were moved to the town.
During a visit to Darlington, which has housed Treasury staff since 2021, the Chancellor undertook meetings with Treasury ministers, was given a tour of the temporary Feethams House site, met with Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, gave a welcome address to, and took questions from, Treasury colleagues.
There are now more than 130 Treasury staff in Darlington, following a rigorous recruitment campaign, a key part of the government’s drive to tap into talent across the UK, level-up across the country and diversify policy making by moving roles out of London.
While working at the site, the Chancellor announced that subject to contract and lease agreement, the site at Brunswick Street at the heart of the town will be the permanent base for the campus, replacing the car park currently located on the site.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nadhim Zahawi, said:
“It was great to work from the Darlington Economic Campus yesterday and announce the Treasury’s new permanent office at the heart of the town.
“We are levelling up across the UK, tapping into the extraordinary talent in towns across the country and I am eager to see more Treasury roles in Darlington.
“People in all parts of this great country have a right to be at the heart of government decision-making and we are delivering on that promise by moving up to 300 Treasury roles to Darlington by 2025.”
Teams have now begun moving from the interim office at Bishopsgate House into a longer-term temporary office in Feethams House, which will be completed in September, ahead of the permanent site being ready in a few years’ time.
There are over 130 HMT staff now in post in Darlington, the department aims to have up to 300 Treasury roles based in the town by 2025. The majority of staff have been recruited directly to the campus and the remainder have chosen to relocate from London.
Alongside the Treasury, the Campus will house teams from the Department for International Trade, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Office for National Statistics and the Competition and Markets Authority. They will be working alongside the Department for Education who already have a base in Darlington.
More than 6,000 Civil Service jobs have already been moved out of London to support the government’s levelling up agenda.
Whilst in the region, the Chancellor also visited the Greggs factory in Newcastle, which recently announced 125 new local jobs. He was given a tour of the factory and met staff who were making the retailer’s famous doughnuts and sweet treats.
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Notes to editors
- Pictures will be available on the Treasury’s Flickr account.
- The Darlington Economic Campus supports the wider Places for Growth programme which aims to move 22,000 civil service positions out of London and the South East by 2030.
- As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, more departments have made fresh commitments to move roles out of London including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), who have confirmed they will move hundreds of roles out of London to locations across the UK. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have also announced they will be moving 550 roles out of the capital by 2025 and 1,100 by 2030.
- The Department for International Trade will be moving 774 roles out of London by 2030, with 500+ being located in Darlington.