Leeds Building Society moves into new city centre headquarters after eight decades

A Yorkshire financial institution has announced that it has moved into new headquarters in the centre of Leeds.

Leeds Building Society, which has more than 50 branches across the country, has completed its move into its new Sovereign Street headquarters, after more than 80 years at its former Albion Street HQ.

The new headquarters can accommodate nearly 1,000 staff, who were previously based across three offices. At the moment, social distancing measures are being observed, so occupancy is currently limited to around a third of the workforce.

The refurbished offices are approximately a mile from where the society was founded in 1875.

Richard Fearon, Leeds Building Society’s CEO, commented: “The work and break-out spaces are light, airy and thoughtfully-designed to provide colleagues with inspiring and comfortable surroundings which support the Society’s collaborative working culture.

“It was always important for the building to offer plenty of flexibility to accommodate new and evolving ways of working, to help us to future-proof our headquarters for many decades to come.

“The pandemic already has put that flexibility to the test, even as floor layouts were being planned and designed, and our move project team responded with creative and practical solutions to overcome each challenge.

“While lockdowns and social distancing have led to changes to the moving-in process and timescales, this major investment in the future of the Society, and in Leeds city centre, was delivered on time and on budget and will reduce our environmental impact as it also enables more efficient ways of working.

“The Society’s success in recent years has driven our growth, and the resulting requirement for extra office space beyond the capacity of our former Albion Street building, so this move uniting all our back-office Leeds teams has been in the planning for some time.

“Part of our purpose as a building society is to help people have the home they want and we’re as excited as any home-movers to be taking this big step together into our future.”