The Charity Commission will move 160 staff to a new office next month as part of a bid to cut its accommodation costs in half over the next two years.

The Commission plans to move staff from its Princes Dock office in central Liverpool (pictured) to Redgrave Court in Bootle on 9 February. Liverpool is the Commission’s largest site, with around half its total headcount. Most staff work in its operations function, which includes its contact centre and its monitoring and investigative teams.

The Commission said there were be only six desks for every ten members of staff. It said these “more agile working practices” would offer staff increased flexibility in how they did their job.

The Commission said the new offices will cost about £450,000, half what it was previously paying for the Princes Dock offices. Altogether the Commission currently pays around £2m a year for offices, and hopes to reduce this by half in the financial year ending March 2017.

“The lease on the Commission’s current Liverpool office ends in spring 2015 so staff had to move,” a spokeswoman for the Commission said. “Government policy is for departments to make more effective use of the civil estate, to share buildings and avoid renewing commercial leases.

“The Commission also has a more flexible occupancy agreement; it is not constrained by a long commercial lease so has greater flexibilities if its future circumstances change.

“We are also close to the HMRC Gift Aid section who are located nearby in Bootle."