Leigh House, Leeds - Serviced Office News

Leigh House Achieves ICT Active Accreditation

Leigh House is a Grade II listed building in Pudsey, just outside Leeds, with a rich history.

However, despite its period appearance, the property has a modern ICT infrastructure and has successfully achieved the ict active standard.

David Weaver, explains the advantages of a property such as this:

“The beauty of ready to occupy, serviced office spaces is tenants can move straight in and you’ve got everything you need. The ICT is ready and waiting to be used, plus all the extras such as a reception and meeting or conference rooms.”

“We like to think of Leigh House as more than just another office space – it’s a home. There’s a really friendly, relaxed and comfortable environment with an understated level of quality, and I think that helps our tenants get more business out of their clients. If you work in a relaxed environment and welcome potential customers into it they will be more likely to do business with you.”

Leigh House is a place where companies can take their business to grow before moving onto larger offices, and there is a steady flow of tenants at the centre.

“We like to think that it was thanks in part to the ease of working from Leigh House that let them grow their business. We take care of all the telecoms and all the ICT, as well as general support in any way we can, even when it is issues that aren’t our direct concern. We feel that if you help people along, they’ll help you back in return.”

The centre attracts businesses from a range of sectors from lawyers, to IT to estate agents, which David believes is testament to how easy it is for a business to make Leigh House its home.

“We don’t focus on attracting any specific sector to move in, but we do have the ICT infrastructure to cater to high-end technology companies. However, we find that a lot of our tenants are brought in because of our location and our grounds.”

“The building is a beautiful Grade II listed mansion, set in some peaceful and green gardens near to major road and rail links and the cities of Leeds and Bradford. Whereas some business centres crop up on industrial estates, or hidden away in town, we have nice open spaces and a relaxed setting.”

David believes that ICT is one of the most vital elements of offering a good office space to tenants, and is proud of Leigh House’s infrastructure and its achievement of becoming ICT Active:

“Telecoms and IT is critical to businesses. We have tenants who come here as they cannot continue to get by on half a megabyte of broadband, as their current base is on the very limit of the exchange cabling. Whereas here with 16 or 20 Mb, they have fast reliable internet connections.”

“As a serviced office space, we take care of all the ICT and its infrastructure. That includes firewalls, broadband providers, voicemail, power supplies and so on. It is our responsibility, which takes away any potential headaches or concerns for our tenants.”

“People perhaps don’t attribute enough to ICT. But once you move from one environment of having a solid ICT set up, to one without that in place, you notice the difference and it can seriously affect the continuity of the business.”

“Two things influenced our decision to be assessed by ICT Active. Firstly, we wanted independent verification that we do have a decent ICT infrastructure that can be offered to tenants. We can use the ict active accreditation to highlight to potential and current tenants how strong our ICT really is.”

“Secondly, having the ict active mark differentiates Leigh House from our competitors. We know that we have a good set-up compared with other office spaces, but how can we show that to potential tenants? The majority of customers perhaps don’t ask the serious questions about ICT – they almost assume that every office space will have the ICT in place and that is often not the case. We hope that by becoming ict active, we, and others under the scheme, can point out to businesses what a good ICT infrastructure should be like.”

“ict active shows tenants that when a property carries that mark, their ICT infrastructure is going to be able to help the business – and that’s the most important part.”