Why is £8,000 not enough to attract Bank of England staff to Leeds?

The Bank has pledged to move 10 per cent of its staff to the city but is struggling for volunteers, despite offering relocation expenses

Collage of Leeds landmarks and a musician playing guitar.
The city has the Leeds Festival — where Sam Fender played in 2023 — the brewer Tetley and Headingley cricket ground, and it is a base for Channel 4, bottom left
Alex Ralph
, Chief Business Correspondent |
Emma Taggart
, Business Reporter
The Times

On a damp day during half term Merrion Street was bustling with shoppers and in between helping customers to choose their next hot sauce Frank Jay, the owner of Chilli Shop, was praising Leeds.

“The city has done really well, there’s thriving universities and a thriving economy here … After a while you go, ‘I could live here.’ ”

That, though, is not a sentiment shared by staff at the Bank of England.

The Chilli Shop owner posing in his Leeds store, surrounded by shelves of hot sauces.
Frank Jay, owner of Chilli Shop, said the city was thriving
MILO CHANDLER FOR THE TIMES

The central bank wants to expand its workforce in the West Yorkshire city but despite the offer of up to £8,000 in expenses to relocate — newly revealed by a freedom of information request — there have been relatively few takers: only 156 out of the planned 500. It aims to

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