The Bank of England (BoE) has announced plans for a new northern hub as part of a review of its footprint across the UK.

The bank’s chief operating officer, Jo Place, is to lead the review.

The assessment, commissioned by BoE governors and its court of directors, is to consider the number of staff involved, recruitment models, and the timescales for delivery.

The plans involve setting up a new hub in Leeds, with an intention to further expand the bank’s presence, based around the office network used by the Agencies around the UK.

The Bank of England currently has 12 agencies across the UK, including for nine regions of England and each of the devolved nations.

These operate from a network of offices in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Fareham, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham.

The review will also take into account the experiences of remote working throughout the pandemic.

The bank said that it expects to allow a more flexible model of working in the future.

“Our mission at the Bank is to promote the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability and to deliver that for the whole country,” said governor Andrew Bailey. “I made a commitment at my pre-appointment hearing before the Treasury Select Committee in March last year to look at how we can expand our staff presence across the UK beyond our existing Agency network.”

Bailey said working through a year of Covid has demonstrated that the bank can function well virtually and that it is now “more important than ever” to think about what future working arrangements will look like.

“This includes the options for working more remotely, and how we can gain better insights into the country and the people we serve,” he said. “Having a greater proportion of our workforce located outside London and the South East will better enable us to support our mission.”

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