DCMS opens new office in Manchester

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced the official opening of its new hub, accommodating up to 400 staff, in Marble Street in Manchester to create a large presence in the city.

The Government has committed to relocating 22,000 civil service roles out of central London and the south east by 2030 - and in response DCMS is expanding its presence across the UK with staff based in Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, Loughborough and Darlington.

The Darlington Economic Campus, a new shared site in the north east for the Treasury, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the Department for Education, will have almost 200 DCMS staff based there.

"Our strength comes from our people and this will allow us to recruit the best, wherever they may be, to deliver the wide range of DCMS policies which drive growth and enrich lives all over the UK," said Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries. "The days of London-centric decision making belong in the past."

The move comes following the government’s publication of its Levelling Up White Paper outlining its ambition to breathe new growth and create jobs and wealth in all parts of the country.

The white paper includes the government’s Places for Growth Strategy which seeks to address regional inequalities and improve areas by making sure local and regional considerations are central to government decision making.

The new DCMS Manchester HQ will contain the head office for Building Digital UK (BDUK) which recently announced it was becoming executive agency status. BDUK is the driving force behind Project Gigabit, the government’s £5 billion plan to roll out faster broadband to hard-to-reach and rural areas and deliver gigabit-capable connections to 85 per cent of UK homes by 2025.

"A new DCMS office in the centre of Greater Manchester will create hundreds of good quality jobs in the city-region for our residents," said Councillor Martyn Cox, Greater Manchester Combined Authority lead for Culture. "This is also a step in the right direction of redirecting decision-making from London to our regions."

DCMS, with its focus on cutting-edge and growing sectors such as digital and technology, is one of the government’s fastest-growing departments with more than 2,000 employees. DCMS is aiming to be the most diverse and inclusive government department by 2025 and the moves announced today will play a vital role in achieving these aims.

As part of the plans, sporting bodies including UK Anti-Doping and Sport England will move to Loughborough University SportPark. DCMS will also move some of its Whitehall roles to the world-class sports facility in the East Midlands.