KPMG said that it did not intend to renew the lease at its technology centre as it shifted to a “hybrid working” model.

A KPMG spokesperson said that the firm remains committed to its presence in the city. They said: “Our planned adoption of hybrid working does slightly change our office requirements and we do not plan to renew the lease on 12,000 sq ft in Manchester Technology Centre. We have relocated our 100 Technology colleagues into our primary Manchester city centre office, 1 St Peter’s Square.”

In February, KPMG said it would invest £44 million to implement a new working model this year, with the majority spent on home-working technology for staff and the rest on office redesigns.

The Manchester closure was first reported by the Financial Times.

KPMG is one of the UK’s biggest corporate occupiers, with about 20 offices in locations such as London, Aberdeen, Birmingham and Milton Keynes.

The firm said that decisions on reducing office space would be made after it had assessed employees’ views once Covid restrictions had been lifted. It intends to retain a presence in all its regional markets.

KPMG is one of the latest firms in the UK to move to a hybrid working model, earlier this month, PwC announced a new flexible working deal for its 22,000 employees. Similarly, HSBC UK and JP Morgan have announced that thousands of their employees will work from home permanently.

According to new research published by Deloitte earlier this week, More than one in five UK workers (23%) - the equivalent of 7.5 million - are hoping to work from home all, or almost all, of the time once lockdown restrictions have lifted.