City 'desperate' for better quality office space

Preston “desperately needs” more of the top-quality office space which could attract government departments to the city, according to a local business group.

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The comments come after Preston failed to feature on a list of 13 locations to which currently London-based civil servants are set to be relocated by the end of the decade as part of a Whitehall shake-up.

The city was absent from the target destinations in spite of an embryonic plan to create a regional “office hub” for government ministries as part of the redevelopment of the site currently occupied by the Fishergate Shopping Centre.

That blueprint - put forward by the precinct’s owners, The Martin Property Group - is yet to receive planning permission, but is an attempt to bring to life a vision for the wholesale transformation of the area around Preston station.

The Preston Station Quarter Regeneration Framework, which was published in 2022, set out an ambition to create a mix of new retail and leisure outlets on the shopping centre site, along with the kind of modern, high-quality office space that was deemed to be unavailable in the city.

The overall project - backed by Preston City Council, Lancashire County Council and the University of Central Lancashire - is likely to be at least a decade-long endeavour.

However, the outline plans drawn up by The Martin Property Group are based around a phased development, with the government-spec office space - in the form of separate nine and six-storey towers on the southern edge of the Fishergate car park - to be delivered first.

That prospectus opens up the possibility that the facilities could have been ready within the timeframe for the government's relocation plans.