Downing Street established a working base in Darlington in November 2022, when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used an office at Feethams House and met Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen.
The Number 10 office formed part of the developing Darlington Economic Campus. Sunak worked from the site on 25 November before walking through the town, and the office was expected to be used by the Prime Minister on future visits.
A government campus taking shape
Feethams House was the existing base, with around 200 jobs reported as secured at that point. Separate plans had been announced for a six-storey office on the vacant Brunswick site beside the former Cricketers Hotel.
The larger campus was intended to bring together teams from several public bodies. They included the Treasury, Department for International Trade, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial , Department for , Housing and Communities, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Office for National Statistics and Competition and Markets Authority.
The stated ambition was for the Darlington campus to support 1,500 jobs by 2025. For local applicants, that represented the possibility of building a senior civil-service career in the North East rather than moving to London.
A direct line for regional discussions
During the November meeting, Houchen raised Teesside, progress at the Teesside Freeport and other local projects. argued that a regular prime-ministerial presence would give the region better access to central decision-makers as well as raising Darlington’s profile.
The office did not transfer Number 10 itself away from Downing Street, and it was not a separate seat of government. Its practical significance was that prime ministers and their staff had a permanent place to work when conducting business from the campus.
The development also sat within a wider policy of moving government roles outside London. Whether the project met its full job target would depend on recruitment and the delivery of the Brunswick building, but the opening showed that the campus was already being used at the highest level.
For Darlington, the moment was both symbolic and concrete: a familiar town-centre office had become part of the machinery of national government, with a much larger employment site planned nearby.
Archive : Office, meeting, department and job details were checked against the Tees Valley Combined Authority report originally published on 25 November 2022. The original date and featured image are preserved.