HSBC headquarters to relocate from London to Birmingham

[Jonathan27]

Du1point8 said:

Greg66 said:

OzzyR1 said:

One of my friends moved to Brum recently as an analyst with Deutsche.

Swapped her two bed Farringdon flat for a 5+ bed house in a couple of acres out near Bridgnorth somewhere.

Loves it.

Don't doubt that. We live in a relatively leafy part of London and really have no complaints, yet I'm sure I'd prefer living in just what you describe.

Trouble is that it is something of a one-way ticket. Your provincial house price won't rise as fast as prices in London, and more to the point, you probably won't want to move back. Which is likely to limit your career choices in something like banking a fair bit, I would have thought.

Hence why its only retail banks thinking of doing this... not very many London contractors and staff want to move as it kills their career, plus they all (in Scottish bank) had to take 10-20% pay cut.

There are IB's doing it. DB being a good example.

[Rude-boy]

AyBee said:

Imagine there are some extremely nice places within commute distance of Birmingham that would be tempting.

There are some fantastic places out that way. When my folks sold up and moved the buyer was a partner at Wragges.

That said my ex came from Bridgnorth and my sister doesn't live a million miles from there. I can 100% confirm that it is an utter sthole and that I would rather live in mid 1980's Brixton than there, Arley or Claverly.

[MarshPhantom]

theboss said:

MarshPhantom said:

OzzyR1 said:

One of my friends moved to Brum recently as an analyst with Deutsche.

Swapped her two bed Farringdon flat for a 5+ bed house in a couple of acres out near Bridgnorth somewhere.

Loves it.

Could have moved somewhere less central and still kept all that London has to offer and got a nice house too. Bridgenorth to Brum isn't exactly an easy journey.

I wouldn't say it was any worse than a typical home counties commute into London other than for the fact you'd need to drive ~25-35 mins to get to any of the nearest stations followed by a comparatively quick and inexpensive train journey.

What you wouldn't want to do is try and drive there... the West Midlands' road network is seriously dysfunctional during rush hour.

30 min to the nearest station is pretty bad. Then you have fuel costs, parking, train fare, running a vehicle plus time taken to get to work to consider.

[Thorodin]

Although the same employer, the relocation will be a new job meaning new contract of sorts. Watch out for the limiting compensation clause and the loss of London Weighting (usually nominal fiddle anyway. Guaranteed massive drop in income.

[eatcustard]

Thorodin said:

Although the same employer, the relocation will be a new job meaning new contract of sorts. Watch out for the limiting compensation clause and the loss of London Weighting (usually nominal fiddle anyway. Guaranteed massive drop in income.

They will still be better off in the Midlands

[theboss]

MarshPhantom said:

theboss said:

MarshPhantom said:

OzzyR1 said:

One of my friends moved to Brum recently as an analyst with Deutsche.

Swapped her two bed Farringdon flat for a 5+ bed house in a couple of acres out near Bridgnorth somewhere.

Loves it.

Could have moved somewhere less central and still kept all that London has to offer and got a nice house too. Bridgenorth to Brum isn't exactly an easy journey.

I wouldn't say it was any worse than a typical home counties commute into London other than for the fact you'd need to drive ~25-35 mins to get to any of the nearest stations followed by a comparatively quick and inexpensive train journey.

What you wouldn't want to do is try and drive there... the West Midlands' road network is seriously dysfunctional during rush hour.

30 min to the nearest station is pretty bad. Then you have fuel costs, parking, train fare, running a vehicle plus time taken to get to work to consider.

It's not great but it's not incomparable to many London commutes, which is the point I was making. How many commuters into London have substantially shorter journeys (or free fuel/parking/rail/etc)... unless they live centrally, not many.

[Murph7355]

More and more banks doing it and have been for a little while - provincial UK is the new "low cost" location now Singapore, India and soon places like Poland and Lithuania etc etc are becoming increasingly expensive (I can't imagine why).

Large redundancy packages are unlikely to be the order of the day. And if banks are brave and move large enough chunks of personnel, the more commodity type resource will struggle to get better offers elsewhere.

Mobility is important to keep options open IMO. It used to be a North to South drift, it's just turning round a bit.

tbh it's what the country needs I'm in many respects.Spread the load geographically.

Just wait for all the down trodden provincials moaning that house prices are going up and leaving them unable to afford anything

[Thorodin]

eatcustard said:

Thorodin said:

Although the same employer, the relocation will be a new job meaning new contract of sorts. Watch out for the limiting compensation clause and the loss of London Weighting (usually nominal fiddle anyway. Guaranteed massive drop in income.

They will still be better off in the Midlands

Absolutely. Ludlow, Worcester, Hereford - idyllic. You can't put a price on the quality of life and it can add so much to your well-being.

[MarshPhantom]

theboss said:

MarshPhantom said:

theboss said:

MarshPhantom said:

OzzyR1 said:

One of my friends moved to Brum recently as an analyst with Deutsche.

Swapped her two bed Farringdon flat for a 5+ bed house in a couple of acres out near Bridgnorth somewhere.

Loves it.

Could have moved somewhere less central and still kept all that London has to offer and got a nice house too. Bridgenorth to Brum isn't exactly an easy journey.

I wouldn't say it was any worse than a typical home counties commute into London other than for the fact you'd need to drive ~25-35 mins to get to any of the nearest stations followed by a comparatively quick and inexpensive train journey.

What you wouldn't want to do is try and drive there... the West Midlands' road network is seriously dysfunctional during rush hour.

30 min to the nearest station is pretty bad. Then you have fuel costs, parking, train fare, running a vehicle plus time taken to get to work to consider.

It's not great but it's not incomparable to many London commutes, which is the point I was making. How many commuters into London have substantially shorter journeys (or free fuel/parking/rail/etc)... unless they live centrally, not many.

When I lived in Lee it was 30 mins to the centre of town, we were 5 mins from the local BR. We're now a bit further out and it's 40 mins. These include time getting to the station.

[mybrainhurts]

Fittster said:

My initial reaction was good news for Brum but it seems a bit unfair on the existing employees having to relocate.

The old Midland Bank, as was, relocated much of its operation from London to Sheffield many moons ago.

Staff were unhappy then, but lots have now retired in Sheffield and love it.

Birmingham, though, is a different kettle of st....

[MarshPhantom]

mybrainhurts said:

Fittster said:

My initial reaction was good news for Brum but it seems a bit unfair on the existing employees having to relocate.

The old Midland Bank, as was, relocated much of its operation from London to Sheffield many moons ago.

Staff were unhappy then, but lots have now retired in Sheffield and love it.

Birmingham, though, is a different kettle of st....

One of Merrill Lynch's IT helpdesks got relocated from the City to Milton Keynes, most ended up not going and getting similar jobs elsewhere in the City.

[speedy_thrills]

The savings for HSBC must be substantial to consider the project. Mind you I suppose they need somewhere to house all those new risk and compliance staff.

[NNH]

Not much fun for HSBC employees whose spouses also have jobs in London

[andy_s]

MarshPhantom said:

mybrainhurts said:

Fittster said:

My initial reaction was good news for Brum but it seems a bit unfair on the existing employees having to relocate.

The old Midland Bank, as was, relocated much of its operation from London to Sheffield many moons ago.

Staff were unhappy then, but lots have now retired in Sheffield and love it.

Birmingham, though, is a different kettle of st....

One of Merrill Lynch's IT helpdesks got relocated from the City to Milton Keynes, most ended up not going and getting similar jobs elsewhere in the City.

Ah, so that's how you get rid of them...

[FiF]

It's going to be a similar experience to the move of the Midland Bank in the 70s from London to Sheffield.

Firstly house market went stupid as all these Midland wkers as they came to be known came up with pots of money.

Some bought flats because that was what they were used to. Then, as others have suggested, went ooh, green, gardens, space, Peak District up the road.

Then they went "Christ on a bike isn't Laaarrndan a hole."

[Digga]

speedy_thrills said:

The savings for HSBC must be substantial to consider the project.

Never underestimate the power of corporate group-think. Outsourcing everything to the Far East used to be 'the next big thing' for all sorts of industries. The pitfalls were seldom given proper, rigorous consideration.

[Jobbo]

MarshPhantom said:

When I lived in Lee it was 30 mins to the centre of town, we were 5 mins from the local BR. We're now a bit further out and it's 40 mins. These include time getting to the station.

When I lived in St Albans I had a 15 minute walk to the station, went in to Blackfriars and then a 10 min walk to the office rather than using the tube. Season ticket (10 years ago) was approx £200 a month averaged over the year. When it rained I drove to the station car park which was a few quid a day, I forget how much.

I live approximately the same distance now from the centre of Birmingham. I drive to the station (20 mins) where there's a large free car park; I take a 20 min train into town and have a 4 min walk to the station (10 mins' walk would take me anywhere in town). Train season ticket is £62 a month.

Comparing Lee, basically a suburb of London, with a Shropshire market town is missing the point. Hall Green would be a better comparison since that's a suburb of Brum with a station; you'd pay less than I do and be in town within 15 mins on the train.

[Fittster]

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/hsbc-faces-hit-u...

So which politician will twist HSBC's arm enough to head back to Hong Kong.

[Du1point8]

Fittster said:

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/hsbc-faces-hit-u...

So which politician will twist HSBC's arm enough to head back to Hong Kong.

Its ok... the lefties want this and think that the banks won't leave the uk, or if they do they were better off without them.

[Murph7355]

Digga said:

Never underestimate the power of corporate group-think. Outsourcing everything to the Far East used to be 'the next big thing' for all sorts of industries. The pitfalls were seldom given proper, rigorous consideration.

This a million times over.