Department for Education - Invest Coventry & Warwickshire

Formerly the Qualifications & Curriculum Development Agency & OfQual, QCDA was a non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and is now Department for Education. The organisation relocated to Coventry from London in 2010 bringing many of its 500 employees with them, thanks to our dedicated relocation support.

How we helped

When QCDA first made the decision to move out of London, Coventry were one of the bidding cities and hosted initial site visits and tours to visit potential sites, assess the local labour market, discuss relocation support from the local authority and familiarisation of the city. After the initial city visits, the six short-listed locations were invited to present to the QCDA Executive Management Team. Once selected, Coventry was also invited to host various staff meetings in the city.

The practical and measurable support that was offered to the QCDA and its staff (e.g. schools, housing, partner employment options, recruitment assistance, reconnaissance visits, office selection) was a key decider in the decision to choose Coventry as its preferred location. The city worked very hard to provide comprehensive statistics and data and to guarantee the provision of a dedicated relocation support officer.

When considering the benefits of moving our offices from central London, we carried out a full evaluation of a number of cities in England. All of them made presentations and held information meetings for QCDA's staff. We were pleased that the Secretary of State approved our Board's recommendation that we move to Coventry.

As a forward-looking organisation, we feel that our choice of Coventry represents a real opportunity for a secure relocation that will contribute to the regeneration of this historic city.

People still ask us: why Coventry? Had it not been for the Lyons Review we probably would have stayed in London. But having to relocate, Coventry was the ideal location for us. It's probably the best-connected city in the country in terms of transport and we forecast that we will make significant business cost savings. People still ask us: why Coventry? Had it not been for the Lyons Review we probably would have stayed in London. But having to relocate, Coventry was the ideal location for us. It's probably the best-connected city in the country in terms of transport and we forecast that we will make significant business cost savings.

ANDREW HALL

Chief Executive, QCDA

Coventry was evaluated against an extensive list of operational and financial criteria:

Availability of top quality city centre or out of town office accommodation at competitive rates
Coventry’s unrivalled location, excellent transport links by road, rail and air, and most importantly under 60 minutes from London Euston
The commitment of Coventry to provide a dedicated resource for relocation support
Coventry has a large, diverse and readily available pool of labour resource. The city has a population of over 306,000 people; there are 1.14 million people within a 30-minute drive of the city centre
Our reputation as one of the safest cities in the UK
Quality and range of housing
Quality of our schools
Graduate supply – 35,000 students between Coventry and Warwick and over 272,000 at 15 universities within 1 hour drive.

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