Celebrating That Massive Coventry Office Relocation? Maybe You Should Read This

This is Mipim week, time for big bold property news announcements and upbeat hullabaloo. So when West Midlands Metro Mayor Andy Street took to Twitter to congratulate the government's housing agency, Homes England, on taking new office space in Coventry, why not cheer?

Coventry City Council chiefs were jubilant, and there was talk of "hundreds of jobs" coming to the city's Friargate office development, Business Desk reports.

However, a conversation with Homes England and a subsequent press statement paint a more cautious picture of a simple plan to share some office space with the city council. If things don't go well it might not get much further than a shared meeting room.

The official statement said that the housing agency is to trial sharing office space with Coventry City Council as part of its aim to work collaboratively with its local council partners.

"Homes England is trialling shared office space with Coventry City Council to see if the centre of the country location could work as a new national centre for the agency," the statement said.

Approached by Bisnow, Homes England said that the number of jobs involved is uncertain, the workspace will be co-ordinated with existing offices in Birmingham and Nottingham, may only be used for meetings, and is an experiment which might not work at all. Homes England could not say how much floorspace would be involved or over what period.

The news follows the announcement that Homes England is trialling space with Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and supports its commitment to collaborate with regional partners, ensuring its experts can work hand-in-hand with local specialists.

The £700M Friargate scheme will eventually total 2.5M SF of new office floorspace. Friargate One is occupied by Coventry City Council and the Financial Onbudsman Service. Friargate Two will total 136K SF.