BT has opened of its new multi-million-pound office in the heart of Manchester.
The opening of Four New Bailey is the final step in BT Group’s five year, UK-wide Better Workplace transformation programme, which set out to consolidate the company’s office spaces from around 300 to closer to 30 key locations.
Four New Bailey will house up to 2,000 colleagues from across BT Group and has been fitted with state-of-the-art technology. It also features a rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the city’s skyline. Sitting on the banks of the River Irwell, it replaces BT’s former office site in Deansgate and adds to the company’s other North West locations in Liverpool, Accrington and Warrington.
Manchester joins other locations including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Dundee and the London HQ in opening its doors to a newly-built BT hub. Multi-million-pound refurbishments have also been carried out at other locations, including Belfast, Doncaster, Glasgow and Newcastle.
As well as marking the completion of the Better Workplace Programme, BT has also published an independent report by Hatch highlighting the knock-on economic benefits from the company’s spend with suppliers and spending by employees.
Allison Kirkby, BT Group chief executive, said, “The opening of our new Manchester office is a significant milestone on the journey to transform BT and our office spaces around the UK.
“We’ve invested heavily to provide best-in-class office spaces for our people across the country, reflecting how critical we are to every region of the UK. The broader economic effect from our offices, our people and our spend with UK suppliers is worth £23 billion to the nation’s economy and beyond our own people we support around 212,000 jobs in the wider UK economy. And this is in addition to the economic contribution from the full fibre broadband network we are building, calculated to be worth £72 billion to the UK’s economy by 2030.”
The independent report by Hatch highlights BT Group’s role in the UK as an employer and investor. It shows that the company directly employs more than 69,700 people and 15,500 contractors in the UK, including engineers building networks, teams in offices supporting customers, and people working in our retail stores. More broadly, the company supports around 212,000 jobs and spends £9.6 billion with UK suppliers and subcontractors, many of which are small businesses.
Sue Glew, BT Group’s Better Workplace programme director, said, “We began our Better Workplace Programme in 2019 to make sure our people had better equipped and more modern offices to call home, to attract the best talent and help us give the best service to our customers.
“Despite facing external challenges such as Covid and global supply chain issues, we’ve given our colleagues multiple new or refurbished workspaces, from Plymouth to Dundee, including a brand-new HQ in London and new regional hubs. More than two million square feet of amazing offices have been created for our people. I’m immensely proud of what our teams and partners have achieved, transforming often tired and dated former buildings into worldclass environments where people can collaborate and learn from each other for many years to come.”