Credit: Stephen Craven [1]/CC BY-SA 2.0 [2]

An extra 1,000 civil servants from eight government departments and agencies including the Cabinet Office and Department for Transport will move into HM Revenue and Customs’ Leeds hub in the coming months, the tax agency has announced.

HMRC’s Leeds regional hub opened in March, with plans for 3,850 of the departments’ staff to move into the office once pandemic restrictions allow. The plans also included 2,000 civil servants from elsewhere in government, including NHS Digital, to move into the building.

Today, HMRC has announced 1,000 extra spots will open up in the 7 & 8 Wellington Place hub, as departments look to move job roles to the northern city.

The adoption of hybrid working practices, sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and included HMRC staff contracts through a deal earlier this year, means the department is “using our office space differently” than first intended, it said.

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As well as the Cabinet Office and DfT, the Government Legal Department, the Government Property Agency, the Health and Safety Executive, Homes England, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Regulator for Social Housing will all move staff into the centre in the coming months.

“There has been an increased interest from other government departments to join us in Leeds as part of the broader civil service Places for Growth programme,” an HMRC spokesperson said. “Alongside HMRC, the building is already shared with NHS Digital and Valuation Office Agency. We will also welcome an additional 1,000 FTE civil servants across eight departments and agencies in the coming months.”

Plans for the Wellington Place hub were announced in 2017, when the site was chosen as one of 13 regional centres being set up by HMRC to replace around 170 offices it was shutting down across the country. It was announced at the time that NHS Digital, which has a sizeable presence in Leeds, would share the office space.

Other departments will begin moving staff into the hub from late August.