The rail giant has secured a deal with The Milton Keynes Partnership to turn the former National Hockey Stadium into Network rail’s new head office.
The site for the new head office is adjacent to Milton Keynes‘ mainline railway station. The new centre will provide centralised office space for a number of Network Rail’s national functions currently based at a range of locations accross the country.
The transformation from National Hockey Centre to cutting edge office space has been agreed with The Milton Keynes Partnership , an organisation started in 2004 to take responsibility for the growth development and investment in the new city.
The Partnership consists of national regeneration agency English Partnerships and Milton Keynes Council, it brings the council together with Local Strategic Partnership from the health, community and business sectors.
John Lewis, Chief Executive of the Milton Keynes Partnership said “Network Rail’s decision to commit to this major investment in Milton Keynes is a real boost to business confidence in the city. We will continue to work closely with Network Rail and Milton Keynes Council to support the successful delivery of this exciting opportunity.”
Network rail claim the move to the new office space ‘hub’ will bring about savings of hundreds of millions over the next 25 years, as they will not have to renew the leases on several other major office space buildings.
The new office space will accomodate thousands of staff, which could impact upon staff in existing Network Rail office space. The Transport Salaried Staff Association say they have not yet been informed of the full extent of this.
Jerry Wines, senior organiser at TSSA said: “Network Rail have given a commitment to discuss the impact of their plans with us over the coming months”