Dozens of York jobs are at risk after CPP announced it was pulling its corporate HQ out of the city.
The company announced on Wednesday (June 14) a restructuring of its business, and its Holgate Park base is set to lose out.
This has long been home to the CPP Group’s corporate centre. That is being relocated to Leeds.
“The management have taken the decision that Leeds is the financial centre of the North of England. It’s a growing technology centre, and so they see it as a better fit for the group operations,” said a company spokesman.
Redundancies likely
CPP’s restructuring will see its national businesses given more autonomy from the group HQ.
York will retain the UK arm of its operation. That employs about 100 people, whose jobs are unaffected.
Of the 160 York workers who are part of the corporate centre, this is how it breaks down:
- 80 are IT professionals – they will be retained in York to maintain the data centre which is staying in the city
- 26-30 staff will relocate to Leeds
- around 50 staff are at risk of redundancy.
After a staff announcement at CPP in York on Wednesday, that redundancy process is now underway.
The move comes less than a month after the company revealed it had sold its Holgate Park building to growing music retailer Gear4Music for £5.3 million.
‘An unsettling time’
Jason Walsh, CEO of CPP Group, issued this statement:
We have also recently announced plans to relocate our Corporate Centre to a new office in the centre of Leeds.
As we bring about these changes, a number of roles based in our York offices are at risk of redundancy and we are currently consulting with our colleagues regarding the options available to them.
Whilst I appreciate this is an unsettling time for some and we are focused on supporting those impacted, these changes will enable us to organise ourselves in a way that will give all of our countries the freedom, autonomy and support to deliver long term growth and profitability.
Latest jobs blow
The decision by CPP to move the most prestigious part of its business from York to Leeds is the latest economic blow to the city.
Earlier this year personal injury litigators Minster Law announced it was quitting York by November, taking 300 jobs with it.
And under Ministry of Defence cutbacks both Imphal Barracks in York and Queen Elizabeth Barracks at Strensall will close, with many hundreds more jobs leaving the city.
CPP – which stood for Card Protection Plan – moved to York in 1998, and at one point employed more than 1,000 people in the city.
But it was hit by a policy mis-selling scandal. In 2012 the Financial Conduct Authority fined the company for mis-selling identity theft insurance and card protection plans.
This was believed to have affected seven million customers, and a £1.3 billion compensation fund had to be set up.