Plans to create a Treasury North in Darlington, County Durham, and move 750 staff from London to the town will be a major fillip for its office market.
Figures from EG’s Radius Data Exchange show that take-up in Darlington has averaged around 28,000 sq ft over the past four years, with bumper years in 2013 when take-up reached 213,824 sq ft, 2012 (153,738 sq ft), 2016 (123,352 sq ft) and 2014 (100,251 sq ft).
A campus for 750 civil servants will undoubtedly boost those figures to a new high.
And while the move by Treasury is part of government’s plans to “level up” the UK, it will also provide an opportunity for the UK government to ease back on some of its spending. Average office rents in Darlington were £10 per sq ft in 2020, compared with an average rent in London’s West end of £112 per sq ft.
The big move to Darlington is expected to take up to five years, but according to Radius data, HM Treasury will not be short of supply. Availability in the town currently stands at around 710,000 sq ft.
Several potential sites have already been highlighted, including Feethams House, a five-storey office block in the town centre, Lingfield Point, a 107-acre business park next to Stockton and Darlington railway, Central Park, a 74-acre brownfield site where the borough council has ambitions for a mixed-use scheme of residential, commercial and educational space to be built, and Teeside Airport.
Darlington beat several other locations including Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle and Tees Valley, to the Treasury’s northern campus requirement, plans for which were announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak in last year’s budget.
