Liverpool, Speke office to close in 2025

LIVERPOOL, SPEKE OFFICE TO CLOSE IN 2025

LBG has today announced the closure of the Liverpool, Speke office which will take place in H2 2025. LBG's decision to close Speke will now see colleagues having to travel further by car or take a longer commute via public transport to the Chester campus, placing a greater burden on them both in time and travel costs. This decision will cause a lot of worry, uncertainty and upset for those who have worked at Speke for many years and also for colleagues reliant on Speke to enable them meet rigid 40% hybrid office expectations.

The closure of Speke will have a potentially significant impact on home-working colleagues, who may need to visit the office for training, meetings and to satisfy any performance improvement plan attendance requirements. It’s also important to point out that the current ways of working, noting Speke has 86% of its workforce working from home, is not a permanent guarantee and can be subject to change in the future. Which is why this decision could become extremely challenging for the large number of colleagues aligned to Speke who are currently home working. 

If the current ways of working approach changes then all of these workers will need to travel to Chester. Unite is dismayed that LBG has decided to exit Speke and abandon the Liverpool City and Merseyside Region. The decision to move jobs and future aspiration away from a region that needs more jobs, investment and opportunities is heartbreaking and runs counter to LBG's stated purpose of ‘Helping Britain Prosper’, this decision signals that this really means ‘Helping Certain Parts of Britain Prosper!' 

Unite calls on LBG leadership to reconsider its position and find a viable and sustainable Liverpool office for Liverpool and Merseyside based colleagues in order to safeguard aspiration, jobs and protect workers from paying more and travelling longer to get to work. Unite will also be looking at a number of options regarding this decision, including contacting MPs and local government officials and will be seeking a collective decision on next steps from members. 

We urge all members impacted by this announcement to get in touch so we can discuss next steps together. Your Unite team will be holding two zoom calls later today to discuss the closure announcement with members. If you would like to attend then please register for a session via the zoom links accompanying the newsletter sent to your email, you will need to provide your email address (Session one - 4:30 pm - session two - 18:00 pm) 

If you have not received the links then please email - LBG.Support@unitetheunion.org with your personal email and Unite membership number.

If you know any colleagues who are not yet a member of Unite the union, then please forward this email to them and encourage them to join via uniteinlbg.org/join

In solidarity

Your Unite in LBG team