Global insurtech firm QBE to relocate 300 staff in Leeds to Bruntwood SciTech’s West Village innovation cluster

The 37,000 sq ft letting across three floors is one of the largest office deals to take place in the city so far this year.

The move will see QBE cement a new home for its robotics centre and technology development hub where it uses robotic process automation to free up employees’ time to focus on customers – reducing manual tasks and speeding up processes. Deploying such innovation into the insurance market has so far saved QBE 50,000 work hours, and now automates 30,000 customer claims tasks per week.

The firm is about to start fitting out its new workspace at West Village, which aims to create a collaborative space to foster innovation. The firm will also have access to the new facilities and spaces Bruntwood SciTech is creating at West Village for similar purposes.

Bruntwood SciTech, a joint venture between Bruntwood, Legal & General and Greater Manchester Pension Fund, is currently undergoing a £20m redevelopment at West Village to transform the office building into a 230,000 sq ft hub to encourage innovation and collaboration through coworking, serviced and leased spaces and activities where startups and large, established businesses can work alongside each other.

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The site will form a key location in Bruntwood SciTech’s Leeds city centre cluster of workspaces for innovation-led businesses, alongside Platform and 14 King Street.

West Village aims to have sustainability and wellbeing at its heart. It will feature a fitness studio space, called Reset Leeds, operated in partnership with training brand Form. It will host yoga, pilates and barre classes, as well as mindfulness and wellbeing sessions for both businesses at West Village and the general public, for all abilities.

The workspace is centred around a main courtyard, where Bruntwood SciTech is creating a landscaped ‘urban oasis’ with tiered biophilia including two private roof terraces in QBE’s workspace, communal breakout spaces and business lounge, flexible indoor and outdoor event spaces, the largest cycle storage facility in the city, and local independent food and drink pop-ups.

Improvements are being made to the building to reduce CO2 emissions, improve air quality, reuse rainwater, reduce noise and create new habitats for local birds and wildlife, including rare butterfly species.

As part of the redevelopment, the building will be fitted with high efficiency air source heat pumps, sensor technology to promote the use of natural ventilation, new windows and additional wall insulation.

Bruntwood SciTech has already pre-let 75 per cent of workspace at West Village, including to Australian fintech firm PEXA and Advisory Insurance Brokers.

Nathan Fuller, chief operations officer of QBE Europe, said: “QBE has had a presence in Leeds for over 20 years and our expansion in recent times has been about leveraging the strong local talent base to support us in our technological development, including the establishment of our robotics centre of excellence almost three years ago. Moving to West Village is the next chapter in our story with the city.”