The new £100 million home of the UK’s civil service took formal possession of its new Blackpool headquarters today. This milestone is further significant progress for the long–continued, £350 million Talbot Gateway regeneration scheme, to transform the town centre. Transformation Minister Andrew Western opened the doors of a new seven-storey building on King Street. This building will be the new home for more than 3,000 employees from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Construction of the building started in 2024, with its doors opening earlier this year. This state-of-the-art facility represents a multimillion-pound investment in Blackpool’s infrastructure and aims to enhance collaboration and learning among staff members. The DWP employees will move from 30 different sites across Fylde to this new central hub.
During his address at the event, Western expressed optimism about the new building’s potential to encourage more civil servants to work on-site. It’s fantastic to see the federal government deeply committed to promoting a new policy. It requires staff to be in the office at least three days a week.
“The policy for much of government is that people need to be in at least three days a week.” – Andrew Western
Western underscored the new DWP’s need for flexibility. There’s an established baseline of expected in-office work, and the same flexibility is extended to staff, allowing for hybrid arrangements.
“We want to give people flexibility where we can, but 60% is the minimum expectation [for people to be in the office].” – Andrew Western
Planners imagined the new hub not simply as an office space, but ultimately as a connection—their future collaborative home. Western noted that the building has the capacity for all 3,000 employees to work full-time if they choose, thus providing an opportunity for both flexibility and presence in the office.
“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.” – Andrew Western
Western commended the building’s design aesthetic and functionality. He said that he would like to see many more such developments like this, spread across the whole DWP estate, in the future.
“It’s an absolutely fantastic building and it’s what I want to see more of across the DWP estate in the future.” – Andrew Western
