WORK on the new office base for Fortis Living, Worcestershire’s largest social housing provider, is underway.

The new office space will see Fortis Living’s services, which are currently in various locations throughout the county, all operating from one location.

The new office is next door to Fortis Living’s current Worcester office, Progress House in Midland Road.

Once completed at the end of the year, the housing provider will operate from the two neighbouring sites.

The aim of the move is to reduce time and travel costs for employees who currently commute between offices in Worcester, Malvern and Droitwich, as well as improving customer service, providing new amenities for staff and leaving room for future growth.

The new development will make use of a vacant brownfield site, situated at the back of the Lea and Perrins factory off Great Western Avenue, and was approved by Worcester City Council’s planning committee last year. New areas of tree planting, cycle storage and electric charge points have all been incorporated into the design.

Guy Weston, group chief executive at Fortis Living, said: “We are delighted that work has begun on site, not only does it confirm our commitment to Worcester, it will also be beneficial to the local economy.

“Moving into a modern building and rationalising our office network will enable us to make cost savings that we can reinvest into existing homes, services and communities and into building new affordable homes."

Des O’Neill, group managing director at Speller Metcalfe added: “Fortis Living is a long standing client of ours and we are delighted to have the opportunity to work with them once again on this exciting new project."

"We have built many houses for Fortis Living over the years and are now looking forward to the challenge of building fantastic new office facilities for their staff."