Back in July, we shared our plans for reviewing our office locations to provide a better service for our customers, which included selling our office at Southwick.
We can now confirm an offer has been accepted for the Southwick Office at the Cornhill Centre, with plans for it to be converted into a children’s nursery, and will close on Friday 14 February.
The office will be relocating a short distance away to the Bunnyhill Centre, which will be due to open following refurbishment in summer 2025.
In the meantime, customers who use the Southwick office will still be able to visit us in person at our nearby office in City Hall. Our City Hall office is located in Sunderland town centre, Plater Way, SR1 3AA.
You can find a list of our local offices by clicking here
Going forward, customers using Bunnyhill in the summer will also be able to access both NHS and specific Sunderland City Council services which already operate at the same location. The site also has free parking and good public transport links.
Further updates on our office accommodation include:
• Washington customers will see us move back to The Galleries and the former Connexions building, in place of the current operation at Pennine House. A move back into the vicinity of The Galleries was something raised by customers involved in the review as being desirable. This is set to take place in May 2025.
• We are still in negotiations to sell our Skyline office in Houghton whilst retaining a high street presence in the town.
Marc Edwards, Executive Director of Property, said: “At Gentoo, the work environment and well being of our colleagues and customers will always be a priority and that’s why we have undertaken a comprehensive review of our office accommodation.
“We have engaged with customers and colleagues during this process and taken a data-led approach based on customer footfall, office capacity and operational costs to ensure we are providing value-for-money services for customers.
“Having easy-to-access offices where customers can receive in-person services from colleagues has always been our aim and I’m pleased we will deliver this through the outcomes of this review. We will be keeping customers and colleagues updated throughout the next steps of the process.”
