Transport Insights

National Highways is spending more than £2m a year on what have been described as “swanky” new offices in Birmingham, a freedom of information request has disclosed.

It was reported in August 2024 that the government-owned company had agreed a lease on 58,697 sq ft at Three Snowhill, to replace its current HQ at The Cube and other offices at Colmore Square.

The “anchor tenant” at the building is BT.

National Highways said at the time that the move would

bring our Birmingham-based teams together under one roof at a convenient location in the centre of the city enabling better collaborative working and building on the community workplace feel that we have developed. 

This was said to be part of its

workplace and location strategy to create better, greener and smaller workplaces.

Indeed, the Cube alone was 5,196.9 sq m, which translates as 55,936 sq ft.

Asked for:

a breakdown of the rental / purchase costs of National Highways head office at Snow Hill Queensway in Birmingham in 2024-2025, and how much has been spent so far per month in 2025-26

The company replied:

The rent payable across all leases at our Snow Hill office is £2,056,645.77 per annum. This equates to £171,387.15 per month. The leases commenced 11 March 2025.

It did not fully answer the second question which was:

whether the costs for this head office come under the Operations, Maintenance, Renewals and Business Costs part of National Highways’ Road Investment Strategy (RIS2) settlement, and the 2025-2026 Interim Settlement, or which other budget these costs come from.

But answered:

The costs for the office will be funded from our current and future RIS settlements.

Obviously, that means you and I will be paying for it.

Rebecca Lush, roads and climate campaigner at Transport Action Network, told me:

National Highways is blowing over £2m of taxpayers’ money every year, by moving into swanky offices in prime real estate in Birmingham. This will be remembered the next time it claims it doesn’t have the funds to replace footbridges, increase safety, and tackle toxic runoff.