TELECOMS giant BT is to plough millions of pounds into refurbishing its flagship Riverside Tower building after Belfast was confirmed as a key location in the company’s future plans.
The Lanyon Place building will undergo a significant modernisation to create a future-fit workplace with space for 1,800 employees from across the BT Group, including digital network business Openreach.
Belfast is the latest key location to be unveiled as part of BT’s ‘Better Workplace Programme’, the largest workplace improvement and consolidation scheme of its type ever undertaken in the UK.
The five-year programme will improve and consolidate BT’s footprint of more than 300 locations to around 30, including corporate offices, contact centres and specialist sites.
Angela McGowan, regional director of CBI, said: “BT’s investment in Belfast is great news for the city and we are pleased that as one of Northern Ireland’s largest employers, it has confirmed its long-term presence here and its investment in modernising its office space in the city centre.
“Upgrading its Belfast site is not only good news for local jobs and employee wellbeing, but also for the wider economy as there are likely to be many local companies and suppliers involved in this large scale project.”
Graeme Paton, BT’s managing director of property and facility services, said: “Our refurbished building in Belfast will bring our people together in an impressive and modern collaborative environment, transforming the way we work.
“Belfast will continue to be an important location for BT Group, and our colleagues at Riverside Tower will benefit from working in a completely refurbished future-fit office which sits in the heart of the city.
“The buildings we work in play a huge part in how we feel and how we collaborate with each other, so we are looking forward to transforming our Belfast office for our colleagues to enjoy as many more of us start to return to our offices over the next few months.”
BT Group's UK director Jane Wood said: “This is a real sign of our continued commitment to Belfast and also to Northern Ireland as a key strategic location for the business.
“Although many of us have been working from home successfully over the last year, we also know that modern office environments are vital.
“This announcement further highlights BT’s confidence in Northern Ireland’s ability to make a sustainable recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.”
BT Group, which in the year to March 2020 made a pre-tax profit of £2,353m on revenues of £22.9 billion, generated a £655 million contribution to the north's economy during the 2019/20 financial year, according to a recent economic assessment report by Hatch Regeneris.
