Building society could be on the move

IPSWICH Building Society could move out of its iconic former headquarters early in the New Year as part of a restructuring of its business.

IPSWICH Building Society could move out of its iconic former headquarters early in the New Year as part of a restructuring of its business.

And jobs could be lost as the business re-adjusts to the tougher economic climate that is now gripping the country.

The top floors of the former head office in Upper Brook Street have been empty since the society's administration moved to Freehold House on The Havens at Ransomes Europark four years ago.

All that now operates at Upper Brook Street is a branch office - and the number of customers has declined since a new it opened at Ravenswood earlier this year.

Society chief executive Paul Winter said the changes had not yet been confirmed, but it did need to look at its operations in the light of the economic crisis.

“We have a very busy branch office in Tower Ramparts which can probably cope with all the business in the town centre and since we opened in Ravenswood the number of customers using the Upper Brook Street branch has fallen significantly so we are looking at that.

“The changes in the economy over the last few weeks has caused many financial services businesses to look at the way they operate - and we are considering making changes.”

Some jobs could go in the new year, but Mr Winter said nothing specific had been decided - although staff were aware that a review of operations was currently under way.

If the society does leave its Upper Brook Street office, there will be speculation that the premises could be bought by Sainsbury's which owns the supermarket which surrounds the building society branch.

“We could not comment on that - it would be a matter for Sainsbury's,” said Mr Winter.