Who would have thought that just over a year ago, the UK would be heading into a lockdown that, let’s be honest, many of us thought would probably only last a few weeks. And yet, despite all the hardships of the pandemic, post-COVID London offers plenty of exciting new opportunities.
And one of those is the rise of homeworking and the gig economy. How can we persuade families that London really is the place to be? And how can we repurpose, reinvent, and re-engage with those communities that want to call our city home?
Of course, a major factor is having a resilient infrastructure to address this new way of working, travelling, and living in the city. So, if we want to attract and retain new talent, and meet our commitment to the UN’s sustainable development goals right here in the UK, then it starts with investment.
To that end, we’re excited about our brand new 150 Holborn London headquarters for Dar Group’s 1,500 UK staff.
The firm’s commitment to the UK means the building will also be the new London base for our member firms including Currie & Brown, Perkins+Will, Portland, Penoyre & Prasad, Elementa, Penspen, and Maffeis Engineering, to complete the family.
Following demolition work in 2020, work on the construction contract with McLaren is now well underway, and we’re very much looking forward to moving into our new eight-storey office in 2022. You can keep track of progress on our LinkedIn page — along with the first in what we hope will be a series of amazing time lapse videos!
So, why do Dar Group believe in the UK and what are the benefits of having an HQ in London?
We see the UK becoming increasingly important, going forward. And having our new office in London means we can bring all our companies together in one place, so that we can collaborate, share expertise and skills, and work a lot more closely in multi-disciplinary teams. As well as attract and retain top talent from around the world, thus underpinning our innovative and solution based approach to our clients.
And with our main focus on infrastructure, architecture, project management and energy, we want to make the most of the UK’s great reputation internationally in engineering and design.
Additionally, post-Brexit there’s a huge impetus for the Government to export internationally. Given the UK’s commitment to carbon net zero, we all want to be involved in that, to help build the recovery and continue to boost the UK’s competitiveness on the world stage. And we believe there’s no better place to do that than from right here in London.