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A new centre for UNISON

In just a few weeks, UNISON will move into the new UNISON Centre at 130 Euston Road, London NW1 2AY.

The move will provide our growing union with a centre to be proud of - where activists, members and staff will work together to support our 1.3 million members.

The new UNISON Centre provides the union with a safe, healthy, modern headquarters which will be a resource for the whole union for the next 30 years.

It includes open-plan office space with modern communication and IT systems, a well-equipped activist centre where lay members can meet and work together and flexible meeting spaces so that the union can avoid the costs of renting external meeting rooms for key meetings, events and conferences.

The move is being planned so that there will be no disruption in service during the process of leaving the old building at Mabledon Place and moving into the new UNISON Centre. Regular updates will be sent to branches over the next few weeks.

The old Mabledon Place office was built by a partner union in 1976 and is no longer fit for purpose. Ongoing repairs and maintenance were becoming prohibitively expensive and any updating was limited due to asbestos being present within parts of the infrastructure.

In 2004, the union's national executive council set up a group to look at options to secure a viable head office for next 30 years.

It weighed up the costs of stripping back and refurbishing the old building, with the added cost and disruption of setting up a temporary base for two years and then moving back in, compared to developing a new purpose-built head office.

This option was judged a better investment in the future of the union. It also provides a long-term asset for the union, rather than paying high rents to a private landlord.

In 2005, the NEC decided to develop a new centre on the site of the historic Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital for women, and this was ratified at our national delegate conference, with the aim of:

• providing a new centre for the union with modern, safe and flexible office and meeting space available for staff and activists;
• ensuring our new building reflected the union's environmental standards;
• protecting the historic hospital site and developing a museum and gallery for public use;
• developing homes for Londoners as part of the site, with some 50 affordable and private flats made available as part of the planning process.