Today, Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi confirmed the new Darlington Economic Campus’s permanent location and promised to guarantee that additional Treasury positions were relocated to the community.
The Chancellor visited Darlington, where Treasury employees have been housed since 2021, met with Treasury ministers, took a tour of the temporary Feethams House facility, had a meeting with Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, and welcomed Treasury employees and answered questions from them.
Following a thorough hiring process, there are now more than 130 Treasury employees working in Darlington.
This is an important step in the government’s effort to recruit talent from all across the UK, raise standards nationwide, and diversify policymaking by shifting jobs outside of London.
The Chancellor made an announcement while he was working on the site, saying that, subject to a contract and leasing agreement, the land at Brunswick Street in the centre of the town will serve as the campus’ permanent home instead of the nearby parking lot.
“It was lovely to work from the Darlington Economic Campus today and launch the Treasury’s new permanent office at the centre of the town,” said Nadhim Zahawi, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
“We are raising the bar throughout the UK by utilising the tremendous talent found in cities all over the nation, and I am keen to see more Treasury positions in Darlington.
We are keeping our promise to move up to 300 Treasury posts to Darlington by 2025 because “people in all regions of this magnificent country have a right to be at the centre of government decision-making.”
Teams have started relocating from Bishopsgate House’s interim office to Feethams House’s longer-term temporary office, which will be finished in September before the permanent location is ready in a few years.
Over 130 HMT employees are already employed in Darlington, and the department hopes to have up to 300 Treasury positions stationed there by 2025. Most of the staff members were hired on-site, while the remaining ones elected to move from London.
Teams from the Department for International Trade, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Department for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Office for National Statistics, and Competition and Markets Authority will be housed on the Campus in addition to the Treasury.
They will collaborate with the Department of Education, which has a location in Darlington.
To support the government’s levelling up plan, more than 6,000 Civil Service positions have already been relocated outside of London.
The Chancellor also paid a visit to the Newcastle Greggs factory, where 125 new jobs for the area have recently been announced.
was given a tour of the facility and introduced to the workers who were churning out the retailer’s well-known doughnuts and confections.