IN PICTURES: Cabinet Office minister drops into Peterborough to officially open multi-million pound Government Hub

A multi-million pound Government hub at Peterborough’s flagship regeneration site has been officially declared open by a Cabinet Office minister.

To the applause of hundreds of civil servants, Alex Burghart MP cut a red ribbon across the front doors of the six-storey offices of Quay House in Fletton Quays to mark its opening.

The Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office told staff: “It’s a real pleasure to be here in Peterborough to see this fantastic new building and not just because it represents the excellent investment in this part of town but also because it gives me a chance to see how you as officials are being looked after.”

The new offices will house staff from the Passport Office, which used to be based in Northminster, in Peterborough, along with staff from the Department of or Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and which includes about 30 staff of the Environment Agency’s Flood Forecasting team for East Anglia and Lincolnshire.

In total, 320 staff from the Environment Agency staff have moved from Kingfisher House, another 120 Natural England staff have relocated from Unex House and 185 Joint Nature Conservation Committee staff have arrived from Monkstone House.

Mr Burghart said: “This is fantastic new building that is on what was once a brown field site not so long ago.

“It will house about 1,000 civil servants as part of the Government’s commitment to Peterborough and that is part of wider package of investment that includes the university and much more.

“We are in the process of investing in Government hubs across the country and Peterborough is ranking with some of the big places nationwide such as Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff, Manchester and Birmingham and that is because the Government realises this is a central place.”

He said: “Quay House is now fully operational. We will operate about 600 people on site but we expect there to be about 1,000 staff based from here.

He said: "50 civil servants have come from Westminster to be here and this consolidation of buildings is a good way of improving the working space, of making sure we are getting our net zero commitments in order and in doing so we have a big new building, which has provided good work for local construction and servicing companies.

"It will benefit those people who were working on the outskirts of the city and now part of the city centre economy.

Mr Burghart said the Government had put in £26 million to the £120 million costs of the regeneration of Fletton Quays.

Clive Anderson, Director of Capital Projects at the Government Property Agency, said: “This is our first new build Hub.

"It will provide inclusive, flexible, digitally-connected workspaces to support greater productivity, create cost efficiencies and enhance carbon reduction.

"This has been achieved by consolidating four remote sites into one new city centre building, with 1,000 civil servants now supporting local businesses.

Shailesh Vara MP, in whose North West Cambridgeshire constituency the hub is situated, said: "It's great to see the additional 1,000 jobs that the hub has created, demonstrating that the Government's Levelling Up programme is having such a positive impact locally.

"These new jobs will also have a domino effect, boosting the local economy.”