An application to build a five-storey, 10,000 sqm government office block in Brunswick Street, put forward by the Government Property Agency (GPA), has been approved by the town planning committee.
Kier was named main contractor for the £118m job in April.
The new office on Brunswick Street will expand the town centre Darlington Economic Campus (DEC) – dubbed Whitehall on Tees – currently comprising Feetham House and Bishopsgate House.
With works on site set to begin later this year and completion earmarked for 2027, the third building will be home to 1,400 civil servants from across a number of government departments.
The campus is part of a decentralisation initiative by successive governments to move civil servants out of London. It incorporates HM Treasury, the Department for Business and Trade, for whom Darlington will be the second headquarters, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, the Office for National Statistics, the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, and the Competition & Markets Authority. It also includes the Department for Education who have been based in Darlington since the 1960s.
The current Labour government seems just as keen on shipping civil servants out of London as the Conservatives were. Cabinet Office parliamentary secretary Georgia Gould, who was put into government as soon as she entered parliament as MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale last month, said: "The new development will support Darlington’s economy and allow the civil service to draw on talent and skills across the region. This government is committed to economic growth in every region of the UK and we will get behind cities and towns to deliver new jobs and opportunities for their communities.”
Second permanent secretary to the Treasury Beth Russell added: “This is a great step forward in developing the Darlington Economic Campus. With over [more than] 920 new civil service jobs already created in the town and 480 more to come, we are offering the opportunity for people in the northeast to do government jobs that were traditionally only available in London, making government policy-making more reflective of the communities we serve.”
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