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Telecoms and broadband giant BT Group (EE, Plusnet, Openreach etc.) has confirmed that, as part of their long-running programme to modernise and consolidate the number of offices they have across the United Kingdom, they’ve decided to close their Liverpool city centre office at The Plaza in St Paul’s Square – putting hundreds of jobs at risk.
The operator currently employs 601 people at the site (Liverpool Business News), which is primarily said to reflect those working for BT’s business division, Openreach staff and Government-outsourced 999 call handlers. The related consultation process, which will begin on 20th July 2026, is expected to offer many of those workers the option of relocating to offices in Manchester and Leeds.
However, for many Liverpudlians the idea of having to travel all the way to BT’s offices in Manchester and Leeds would not be practical, which in reality means that a high proportion are likely to opt for discretionary enhanced redundancy instead.
A BT spokesperson said:
“BT has been modernising and optimising our estate to ensure our workplaces are fit for the future and provide the best possible environments for our people. As part of this strategy, we are proposing to close our office at the Plaza in Liverpool. We are working closely with impacted colleagues, with some proposed to move to other locations. We will continue to support all our colleagues throughout this change.”
In case anybody has forgotten, one of BT’s future strategic targets for 2030 has been to slash their total labour force to between 75,000 and 90,000 (it’s more likely to end up between 75k and 80k). As of 31st March 2025, the Group had a total of 85,300 employees (mostly in the UK), representing a decrease of 6,400 (-6.98%) compared with the previous year. We should add that Openreach’s engineering teams will eventually also start to shrink once their FTTP build starts slowing down from its current peak in the near future.