BCG expands London office presence

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Boston Consulting Group has expanded its main London office by more than 30 per cent in a bet on in-person working, the latest company to boost its office space and a sign of hope for the UK capital’s ailing commercial property market.

The US consulting firm told the Financial Times it had added a floor-and-a-half to its Fitzrovia site, where it previously occupied four-and-a-half floors, citing growing demand for office space driven by its emphasis on in-person work and plans for UK growth.

The expansion includes one new floor as well as half a floor that it already leased but was previously unused, and which is now filled with plants and a café-style working space to entice employees back to the office.

BCG is the latest company to expand its office space since the pandemic, when working from home led to empty buildings and plunging commercial property demand. Investment in London offices in 2024 was down 58 per cent on the long-term average, according to Savills figures.

The management consultancy employs 32,000 people in more than 100 offices worldwide, roughly 2,000 of whom are in the UK, and has maintained a steady preference for in-person working. Consulting staff based in London, Amsterdam and Brussels have been told to work from the office or from clients’ sites four days a week since 2023, according to people familiar with the policy.

Other big businesses have also expanded their London office presence in recent years.

Deloitte last year took on roughly 70,000 sq ft of extra space, an increase of almost a fifth, after closing two of its buildings because of the pandemic. Deloitte has so far maintained its stance allowing entirely flexible working in the UK.

US bank JPMorgan Chase is in talks to lease part of Credit Suisse’s former UK headquarters in Canary Wharf and has called for a full-time office return from March.

HSBC is considering additional space beyond the building it has leased near St Paul’s, which is just over half the size of the tower in Canary Wharf it will vacate in 2026.

Facing increasingly empty office buildings, some companies have ordered employees to return to the office. PwC, which is considering options for when its Embankment Place lease ends, told employees in September it would monitor compliance with a new three-days-a-week office policy.

Jessica Frame, managing partner of BCG’s London office, said the expansion “allows us to accommodate our larger team and reflects the emphasis we continue to place on in-person working across both consulting and non-consulting teams.”

“London remains our largest office in Europe and we’re evaluating how best to plan for future growth in the UK,” she added.

BCG, which has not yet published its revenues for 2024, told the FT its growth was in the “double digits” last year and it expected similar this year.