Senior leaders from across the city have this week taken part in a vision-building workshop led by the Home Office.
Last month, Stoke-on-Trent was confirmed as a new base for the Home Office. The major national employer will accommodate more than 500 jobs, which will be delivered from a new hub in the city that will support a highly skilled multi-disciplinary caseworking function and a national asylum customer communications hub, along with other teams that will be pivotal in operational activity across the country.
Places for Growth will relocate 22,000 roles from London by 2030, including 50 per cent of UK-based senior civil service roles, with this being the second largest movement of jobs out of Whitehall.
The first-of-its-kind vision-building workshop presented the joint aspirations of both Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the Home Office. The workshop was chaired by Tricia Hayes, Second Permanent Secretary at the Home Office and focused on creating, developing, and nurturing opportunities for local people in and around Stoke-on-Trent. Attendees were invited to work creatively through the morning to develop ideas and plans on how the Home Office’s new location can encourage growth, attract people into the area and provide high-quality jobs for local people.
Council Leader Abi Brown has said: “Welcoming a national employer, who provides world-class public service to Stoke-on-Trent is a huge milestone in our Levelling Up mission. Attracting one of the lead government departments just shows how attractive the city is to larger businesses. The workforce will be primarily local people, customers using the new hub will not just be residents of Stoke-on-Trent, they will be from all corners of the world in varying careers, from Premier League Footballers to musicians, accessing the service from a high-tech centre, here in the city.
“The new hub is about far more than simply moving Civil Service departments outside London, it’s about job creation, supporting apprentices, creating opportunities for skilled jobs, and retaining knowledge and skills in the city. It’s about innovation in the workplace and in-service design and delivery. Employment is on the up. Our towns and city centre are on the up. Stoke-on-Trent is truly levelling up and well and truly on the map.
“The addition of the Home Office to Smithfield confirms its status as the premier business destination in the city region, continuing to bring quality jobs to the city and footfall to the city centre. Smithfield is already home to thousands of jobs, several hundred residents and a prestige hotel brand in Hilton, which welcomes over 46,000 visitors annually.”
Another major theme of the workshop was about creating opportunities for young people across the city. The joint aim is to develop the relationship between the city council, local partners and the Home Office to become a long-term and sustainable employer which will create, develop and nurture opportunities for local talent in and around Stoke-on-Trent
Tricia Hayes, Second Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, said: “We are committed to ensuring that the Home Office harnesses the talent and skills of people in every part of the UK, and our plans for Stoke-on-Trent are an important part of that commitment.
“The Home Office is already a national organisation, with more than half of our staff already employed outside of London and the South East. As part of our work on Places for Growth, we have set ourselves a target of moving a total of more than 1,950 roles from Greater London by 2025.
“Here in Stoke-on-Trent, we have exciting plans to create 500 new jobs. I am delighted that this will include roles for apprentices. Our ambition for our new Stoke-on-Trent base is to build a strong culture of collaboration and innovation, thinking about problems in new ways, and helping the Home Office solve some of our most difficult challenges, including in the asylum system.
“I’m really looking forward to spending some time with our newest recruits and finding out more about what they will bring to our important work.”
The outcomes of the workshop were to develop a ‘charter’ that encapsulates what the Home Office aspires to achieve and can contribute to Stoke-on-Trent residents, local partners and the city council.
The Home Office has committed to creating around 500 new jobs in Stoke-on-Trent, with the first employees expected to move into Two Smithfield at the end of April.
- More articles in the news archive
- Stoke-on-Trent news RSS feed