Engineering giant Dyson has abandoned plans to open a £100m research and development hub in Bristol and has told all its staff already based in the city they must now work from its UK headquarters in Wiltshire nearly 30-miles away.
The firm, best known for its vacuum cleaners, said it will support its 180-strong Bristol workforce to make the roughly 45-minute commute to Malmesbury, including offering a coach service and free charging for electric cars. 
Dyson announced the £100m research and development hub in a waterfront building in Bristol’s Finzels Reach development area two years ago.
At the time it said the centre, pictured, would become home to hundreds of software and AI engineers working on a pipeline of new tech products as well as the firm’s commercial and e-commerce teams for Great Britain and Ireland.
Jake Dyson, son of founder Sir James and the company’s chief engineer, claimed it would focus on sensors, apps and ‘connectivity’ in future products.
However, the company this week said that following “significant investment” on refurbishing the building, it would now be offered for lease to other businesses.
It also said the lease on its office in Cathedral Square – where its 180 Bristol staff now work – was about to end and would not be renewed.
Dyson UK HR director Bill Wright told the BBC: “As a global technology company, our research, innovation and discovery of new technology depends on collaboration and sparking ideas off each other.
“As the pace of innovation and development accelerates, we increasingly see the benefits that would come from having teams all located together in one physical location.”
In 2019 Dyson attracted sharp criticism for relocating its global headquarters to Singapore from Malmesbury.
The firm, which makes air purifiers and hair dryers alongside its iconic cyclone vacuum cleaner, insisted that it remained committed to the UK, pointing out it employed around 3,500 people here, spread across its main offices and research hub in Malmesbury, at an office in London and in Bristol.
However, last summer it announced it was to axe 1,000 UK jobs – a move that prompted West of England Metro Mayor Dan Norris to seek a “cast-iron guarantee” that the £100m research and development centre in Bristol would still go ahead.
