Government Hubs Programme
Updated 24 August 2023
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1. Redefining the Government office estate
The Government Hubs Programme is supporting economic growth across the UK. It’s a catalyst in regenerating brownfield sites, returning shoppers to high streets and turning unused buildings into collaborative, modern workspaces.
The Programme is rationalising our estate in cities across the UK and playing a pivotal role in the Government’s Levelling Up Agenda, which will relocate 22,000 Civil Service roles out of London by 2030.
The Hubs present the opportunity to:
- generate cost savings and reduce carbon emissions
- Closing c.134 buildings (c.60 offices in central London, c.74 regional offices)
- build and open 15 additional new Hubs in the regions to accommodate more than 53,000 civil servants
- achieve a shared vision of transforming central government’s ageing office estate, ensuring it is more efficient, digitally connected and will support modern ways of working
Through the Government Hubs Programme, we are delivering modern, customer-focused, digitally connected and inclusive workplaces to enable government departments to share space and work productively.
1.1 Where it all began
In 2014, HMRC launched its own ‘hubs’ initiative - Building our Future programme. The purpose was to reduce its estate from 170 offices down to just 13 regional centres, known as hubs.
The concept was then included in the Government’s overall drive to rationalise its public sector estate. And the Government Property Agency was created in 2018 to lead the transformation, known as the Government Hubs Programme.
So far, 17 Hubs have opened, including Belfast, Birmingham (x2), Bristol, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London (x4), Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Peterborough.