Economic dip chance to level up the regions

PwC is set to bring in 35 new staff into its Bradford office, which currently consists of 100 employees having opened last year.

The professional services firm is now looking for additional floorspace within its Bradford office, which has been assisting PwC’s audit practice, and has plans to bring in a managed services offering as well.

Carl Sizer, head of regions at PwC, told The Yorkshire Post: “We are having some advanced talks with landlords around requiring additional floorspace within the Bradford office.

“That’s against the backdrop of quite challenging times for the business community but very much a demonstration of our continued commitment to invest in the regions and building out our regional footprint.”

When PwC opened its office in the city last year, the firm revealed that it was looking to grow to a headcount of 225. PwC says it is “well ahead of schedule” regarding those growth plans.

Currently, the firm has around 1,350 staff across Yorkshire and the North East with 1,000 in Leeds, 250 in Newcastle and 100 in Bradford.

Mr Sizer admits that there will be economic challenges following the coronavirus disruption but sees an opportunity to redress the imbalance between London and the regions.

He said: “There is the opportunity to build back better and to level up across the UK. One of the things that the UK Government’s thinking about is how can we build back better through this?

“That may well involve more investment in the regions more broadly. That is an area that we will make sure we are supporting and helping the local businesses, councils and Governments.”

PwC is keen to push hard on improving social mobility and expanding its presence in Bradford will allow it to do that.

Mr Sizer said: “We saw Bradford as a bit of an untapped talent pool. It’s one of the largest cities in the UK and the youngest city in the UK.

“There’s a real opportunity there in terms of that skill and talent base that we think is very much untapped. We are keen to really push hard on the social mobility agenda.”

Like many office-based businesses, PwC made a successful switch to home working during the lockdown. The professional services giant expects to adopt a hybrid model of home and office working.

Mr Sizer said: “We are certainly still very much wanting our people to be given the opportunity to come back into the office.

“We are slowly seeing more people come back in over time as confidence grows. That’s by no means us forcing people to go back in by any stretch of the imagination.

“Our expectation is that there will still be a need for an office. Often you see a lot of business innovation that happens when people are working and sitting together. That’s something that is much harder in a virtual environment.

“While you can execute and get jobs done, innovation and collaboration is much harder.”

PwC does not see any issue bringing on new people in the middle of a pandemic having successfully onboarded hundreds of new staff in April.

“I would say it isn’t the easiest to do but we had a cohort of people across the UK that joined in April,” Mr Sizer said.