BT upholds vow to axe majority of property with £210m HQ sale

Sale comes in wake of promise to reduce its UK offices by 90 per cent

BT has sold its global London-based headquarters to a European property fund for nearly £210m.

The deal sees the beleaguered telco sell off its BT Centre building in St Paul's to Orion Capital Managers but allows it to lease back the facility for up to 30 months until it finds a new home in London.

The move comes just a month after BT announced it would be closing 90 per cent of its UK offices as part of its Better Workplace Programme.

That scheme will see the firm hold onto just 30 sites out of its existing 300, with Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Ipswich (Adastral Park), London and Manchester already named as "key locations" that will house its workplaces.

"Revealing these eight locations is just the first step; we have dedicated teams working on identifying the best buildings to move into and which ones to redesign for the future," BT Group chief executive Philip Jansen said at the time.

"As a result of this programme, BT people will be housed in inspiring offices that are better for our business and better for our customers."

The sale of its HQ and the Better Workplace Programme are both a part of the telco's restructuring plan which will see it axe 13,000 jobs in order to reduce its operational expenses by £1.5bn.

The majority of these cuts will be in back-end and mid-management roles and will be offset by 6,000 new hires.