Business advisory giant Deloitte has launched a dedicated “corporate assurance hub” in Manchester, the firm’s first in the UK outside of London, as it looks to strengthen the scope of its services to businesses in the North West of England.

The new hub will be headed by equity capital markets partner Tim Grogan and assurance director Saul Wadsworth, who are looking to expand their team by hiring at least 20 new recruits.

“Building on the success of its North West equity capital markets team over the last 10 years, which includes the recent DWF IPO and the readiness assessment to prepare AJ Bell for its IPO, Deloitte has added new services and is recruiting new people to become one corporate assurance team,” said Deloitte.

“The hub will support large corporate businesses and private equity houses in the North West and, working alongside the Manchester-based risk advisory and transaction services teams, will offer assurance services across three distinct areas: equity capital markets, accounting advisory and accounting operations.

“This includes preparing businesses for a transaction and helping them with complex accounting matters.”

Grogan said: “The North West economy is incredibly strong, and arguably the most prominent outside of London.

“Our corporate assurance model has proved to be a huge success, so it felt like a natural next step to launch a dedicated hub here in Manchester.”

Andy Westbrook, Deloitte North West Senior Partner, added: “Our new corporate assurance hub presents a huge opportunity for us to continue to support our North West clients with the best of Deloitte.

“We have a fantastic team here in Manchester led by Tim and Saul, all of whom have significant experience working with local, national and international businesses.

“They are able to assist with the most complex transactions, accounting complications and control environments.

“I’m personally very excited that we are able to offer these services to our valued clients across the region using a locally based team.”