Royal London ‘needs more space soon’ in Cheshire
Royal London, the mutual life, pensions and investment company, has appointed Lambert Smith Hampton to advise on alternative location options, if Cheshire East Council is unable to remove planning restrictions limiting expansion at its current site in Wilmslow.
Royal London is based on a campus site off Alderley Road.
A statement from the company said: “Following a period of rapid growth and with plans for future expansion, Royal London is looking at location options for the business.”
The company owns a site to the east of the campus which it has earmarked for office expansion, however the use of the plot for commercial purposes is yet to be confirmed due to the ongoing examination into Cheshire East’s local plan.
In March 2015 Royal London announced that it wanted to increase staff numbers from 900 at its Wilmslow site to 1,350. A statement from Jerry Toher, head of consumer division at Royal London, said that in time the company planned to grow its number of employees by 50%.
Neil Kilshaw, head of procurement and facilities at Royal London, said: “At our Wilmslow site we have recognised for some time that space is a real issue. With an ageing property we are restricted in both maintaining existing and creating new working environments, without undertaking a major refurbishment. We’ve already relocated our some of our people to Alderley House on the campus as we have run out of space in the main Royal London House office. Taking into consideration our planned growth over the next few years, it’s clear we’re going to need more space soon.
“One of the options open to Royal London would be to develop new purpose-built offices on the adjoining land that we own to the east of the current site. However, delivery of this option will require Cheshire East Council to remove planning restrictions on the land as a matter of urgency.
“As uncertainty remains around the leading location option, Royal London is also looking at other development sites near to Wilmslow.”
