Deloitte rows back on City office cuts with more floors at its London Athene Place base

London, United Kingdom: Deloitte is backtracking on its previous cuts after it has taken on extra space in its City of London office, highlighting a boost of its office use.

The Big Four firm cut the size of its London offices back in 2022 when it exited its Hill House building on its London campus, which was a reduction of 185,000 sq. ft of office space.

The firm is now increasing its space with 70,000 sq. ft of office according to the Financial Times, this is across three floors at its 66 Shoe Lane location, with a fourth floor to follow later this year.

Deloitte’s London campus contains three locations on New Street Square, while also having one on Hill House, Stonecutter Court and Athene Place, at 66 Shoe Lane.

Initially, the firm cut its space after it told staff they are free to work-from-home as often as they want back in June 2021, when the pandemic was in the early stages. However, the sign of the firm regaining more space is a sign that staff are going into the office more regularly.

However, this comes after Deloitte was reported in February to downsize its UK deals unit following a profitability review.

Commenting on the move, a Deloitte spokesperson told City A.M: “We are always monitoring how we use our office space so we can respond to the needs of our clients and people.”

They explained that “in February we opened three floors in 66 Shoe Lane, with a fourth to follow later in the year – they are a mix of workspace and client space and increase our overall London campus space by 18 per cent to support our growing business and ways of working.”

Elsewhere, fellow Big Four firm EY launched a property review of its London headquarters back last November as it prepares for the end of its lease.

The same firm, EY, started to monitor its UK employees’ office attendance in order to see if staff are aligned with its hybrid working guidelines. Like other firms, EY moved to a hybrid working model in the UK. The firm had the expectation that most of its staff would spend at least two days a week working remotely but encouraged to spent time working together in person at a client site or one of its offices.

Financial Times
2 April 2024