New £100m civil service hub opens in Blackpool

A government minister has said he hopes more civil servants will want to come into the office to work out of a new multimillion-pound building in the centre of Blackpool.

More than 3,000 staff members for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are moving into the £100m building on King Street from other sites around Fylde.

The purpose-built support centre, which has been designed to be as energy efficient as possible, includes open plan working areas, meeting rooms, quiet zones and other flexible workplace settings.

It was officially opened by Minister for Transformation, Andrew Western, and forms part of the £350m Talbot Gateway regeneration of the town centre.

Mr Western said the government encourages people to work from the office "to collaborate and learn best practice".

"The policy for much of government is that people need to be in at least three days a week," he said.

"We want to give people flexibility where we can, but 60% is the minimum expectation [for people to be in the office]."

Work began in 2024 to build the new office building, which opened earlier this year.

He said of the new seven-storey building "we've got capacity for all 3,000 to be in full-time if they want, but we know that one of the big things that people look at in the jobs market is flexibility, so I think there's an opportunity for both here."

"It's an absolutely fantastic building and it's what I want to see more of across the DWP estate in the future," he added.

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