600 Jobs at Risk as BT Confirm Plan to Close Liverpool City Centre Office
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.
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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.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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The Openreach people will not be offered a place at Manchester due to Openreach not having any space there.
Shocking company to work for now
Sadly that is for most large companies these days. Want more done per person and if it is not possible, find some way to get rid of the person.
That is a bit naff, but this is normal for big companies. They want to make more and more profit, after all the shareholders matter.
Annoys me when a company is making millions and yet complain that they are still not making as much as they want. The company I worked for is the same. Oh we made just over a billion pounds, but it is not enough.
GREEDY DEVILS.
Too much greed in the world, too many people with more money than they know what to do with. Then it is us Joe public who are trying to keep heads above water that are asked to give money to help people in other countries.
Let some of these multimillionaires put their hand in their pockets, like Trump and Musk.
Getting more & more like America where 90% of the people are getting poorer so companies just go after the top 10% and screw everyone else.
I don’t understand how Trump and Musk have entered the discussin here. BT don’t have the wealth Musk has and have you seen their current debt balance?
@Rion, just blowing off some steam.
BT as a company has plenty of money and those at the top certainly have, maybe not Musk and Trump Wealth, but still more than enough.
What’s the alternative? If companies keep people they don’t need on the pay roll it just leads to higher prices and ultimately failure of the company as less burdened competitors take over. Not great for the people who have to find a new job but that’s why there is the safety net of redundancy pay (and former BT employees get better than most) and state benefits later.
The switch-off of the PSTN and the move to fibre were always going to result in a significant shack-out.
The early arrival of AI and the excessive costs imposed on businesses by this government in recent years mean that cost reductions must be accelerated to stay on course.
Have no doubt that there will be further significant job losses from all players across the sector over the next two to three years.
If this closure has anything to do with the local accent, then could the Glasgow office be next?
Unlikely as it’s the useless telco’s tartan HQ but hopefully BT leaves Scotland entirely.
Oh dear, someone don’t like BT.
Soon all ISP’s become Al rebot!
Reading the article again, this is not really anything to do with ISPs.
What worries me, maybe worry is the wrong thing as I don’t live there, but moving 999 services to a place where people will have no idea about the layout of Liverpool can cause problems.
Had the issue here over a week ago, a bloke was on the floor in the street, my mate phoned for an ambulance and trying to explain where we were to someone who I doubt had any idea where the city was, never mind the street.
Thankfully, someone must have phone for one before, as one came around the corner while my mate was still on the phone. Still some good people around, even if most people just walked past.
Sorry, in one of these, what the hell is wrong with people mooods today.
Ad47uk – how many 999 answering centres are there in the UK?
@The Facts, I have no idea how many 999 centres there are in the U.K.
the lady CEO of BT (according to Private Eye) has increased her pay by 125% since March 2025 and in that time has sacked (allowed to leave?) 8500 staff members in the same period. wonder why that is?
Why is an increase in her remuneration a problem?
If I recall, some of these people have only recently relocated from Chester too. Some excellent people being messed around here.
I remember being kicked out of the BT one in Baldwin Street Bristol in 1998. I think we were doing talking pages – but htye just came in one morning and we were all sacked by Lunch.
Businesses are not charities. Unfortunately, too many people have forgotten that.
I don’t blame them for cutting back staff; my work hours have been reduced too, thanks to the hike in national wages and national insurance. The rising energy bills aren’t helping these companies either, and we’re paying some of the highest energy prices in the world.
It’s scousers not Liverpudlians.
Liverpudlians are people who support Liverpool FC, not people from Liverpool.
That is not true. The term Liverpudlian applies to anyone who comes from the City of Liverpool. Not all Liverpudlians are Scousers.
Why are people complaining about businesses need to make money and make cutbacks and we have a generous welfare system that will help people this is life comes and goes.
Yeah. That £95 per week (£75 if under 25) is really going to help tide everyone over who ends up without a job through no fault of their own. Very generous indeed! I’m sure they will be able to pay their mortgage, transport, food, utilities, kids etc with that life changing amount of money. Oh yeah, they’ll have to wait 7 days too (to apply) and then wait at least 2 weeks before getting any money.