Sovereign's new Greenham hub given the green light

Special apprentice training facility will also be built

SOVEREIGN Housing association has been granted planning permission to build a new 27,000ft hub at Greenham Business Park.

Greenham Trust has announced that it has issued tenders for the construction work for the state-of-the-art complex.

Among Sovereign’s plans for the Workplace project is the construction of a special apprentice training facility adjacent to the hub.

Sovereign’s senior sponsor for the Workplace project, Judith Clark, said: “We’re thrilled to be working with Greenham Trust to realise our vision of a new kind of workplace.

“Aligning with our new corporate strategy, we envisage a lively hub which offers an agile working space that promotes wellbeing.

“This means a different kind of office, with break-out areas, quiet zones and opportunities for different teams to mix and mingle.

“We’ll have around 300 permanent office staff on site, as well as 200 tradespeople using Greenham as their main base as they travel around looking after our homes across Berkshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire.

“Working in this way will help us to focus on our customers, bringing a combination of expertise together under one roof.”

She added: “This new hub is just one step in our new workplace strategy.

“As we change how we work, we’re moving from 22 offices to five major hubs and our corporate HQ, allowing people the flexibility to work from home, an office or elsewhere, as suits them – and our business – best.

“It’s hoped that this hub in Greenham will be up and running by early spring 2021.”

Greenham Trust estates manager Rupert Holtby said: “We are delighted that Sovereign Housing association have chosen to relocate to Greenham Business Park.

“It underpins the business park as West Berkshire’s largest employment site and allows us to work in partnership with Sovereign to develop a first-class office for them.”