The office park’s lease had an expiry coming up in January 2020, prompting a full review of options available to our occupant.
Another building in the local area – Quarry House – is an increasingly prominent site within the government’s hub strategy, becoming a long-term strategic hub for a range of public sector organisations. This includes a health element, and NHS England already have their national team there.
Therefore, we were keen to explore the possibility of moving the NHSE contingent in the office park into Quarry House, but their existing space requirements meant this was not possible.
NHSPS’ National Office Programme and Property Management teams therefore started work with NHSE to clarify their requirements and identify opportunities for efficiencies.
We ran a utilisation study and found that the space being used exceeded the occupier’s requirement. With this evidence we were able to demonstrate that the existing space in Quarry House could accommodate the staff from Leeds City Office Park, shrinking the overall footprint.
Absorbing this team into an existing demise, with only very basic changes being made at Quarry House to accommodate the team (i.e. no major reconfiguration needed), meant we achieved a saving of £400,000 per annum, with no capital costs to enable the move.
Relocating the team to this strategic hub will enhance the potential for knowledge sharing and collaboration across teams and organisations (within the NHS and wider public sector), and further support the development of this site into a strategic hub.
The 73 staff at Leeds City Office Park moved to Quarry House in December 2019.
“With a time-limited offer on the table, some rapid decisions backed up by robust evidence were required on this project, and we were impressed at how quickly NHSPS were able to support us in this, including a comprehensive space utilisation study within a couple of weeks. I cannot fault the engagement from our NHSPS National Office Programme Manager, who has worked closely with our staff on a national and local level to initiate the project, communicate decisions and finally deliver the consolidation.”
Catherine Blissett, Regional Corporate Estates Manager, Transformation and Corporate Development, NHS England and NHS Improvement
