BT completes UK office transformation plan with opening of flagship new Manchester office

BT has announced the opening 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 boasts a rooftop terrace offering 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, today also saw the company publish an independent report by Hatch, highlighting the knock-on economic benefits from the company’s spend with suppliers and spending by employees.

Visiting Manchester to mark the opening of the office, 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 £23bn 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 £72bn to the UK’s economy by 2030*.

“As I’ve met colleagues from across the company at our new and refurbished locations, I’m impressed and proud of the vital work they do in their local communities, and of the role BT plays nationwide.”

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.”

Notes to editors:

• The full report by Hatch can be found here: bt.com/economic-impact  
• BT Group employs more than 9,500 people across the North West of England, supporting  £2 billion in the region’s economy. It is responsible for generating £1 in every £110 of GVA across the North West.
• *Openreach commissioned the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) and Stantec to produce a joint report into the impact of our rollout of Full Fibre broadband across the nations and regions of the UK. Taken together, the productivity and workforce boosts to Gross Value Added (GVA) will total £72 billion per year by 2030.
• The list of brand new buildings to BT include: (BT Group HQ) One Braham, London; Three Snowhill, Birmingham; Assembly, Bristol; New Bailey, Manchester; Capital Quarter, Cardiff; Stanford House, Warrington; West Marketgait, Dundee; Endeavour, Sheffield; Plazza, Liverpool and (Openreach HQ) Gracechurch Street, London.
• The list of refurbished offices include: Bangor, Plymouth, Glasgow, North Tyneside, Belfast, Doncaster and Newcastle (Gosforth).  

Key facts about the Better Workplace Programme:

• Over 1.2 million sqft of new office space and 1 million sqft of refurbished space.
• Includes the sale of former HQ BT Centre (£209m) and the BT Tower (£275m).
• Enough cables to go from at least Dundee to Plymouth.
• Enough paint pots to fill Wembley.
• More than 10,000 new mugs purchased.
• More than 35,000 teaspoons.
• Became the number 1 buyer of office furniture in the UK, for two years in a row.

BT Group is the UK’s leading provider of fixed and mobile telecommunications and related secure digital products, solutions and services. We also provide managed telecommunications, security and network & IT infrastructure services to customers across 180 countries.

BT Group consists of three customer-facing units: Consumer serves individuals and families in the UK; Business covers companies and public services in the UK and internationally; Openreach is an independently governed, wholly owned subsidiary wholesaling fixed access infrastructure services to its customers - over 700 communications providers across the UK.

British Telecommunications plc is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

For more information, visit www.bt.com/about