PROPOSED changes at the AA could see the company's headquarters on the road back to its landmark building in Basingstoke.

Although the AA has always maintained a presence at Fanum House, in Basing View, since being bought by Centrica in 1999, many of the headquarters' staff were relocated to new offices at Southwood, Farnborough.

The AA's £20million flagship, purpose-built offices in Priestley Road, Basingstoke, were sold as a result of the Centrica deal and were bought by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, who is also headquartered in the town.

Since being bought again at the end of last year by leading private companies CVC Capital Partners and Permira Advisers for £1.75billion, the AA has begun another restructuring programme.

Plans are being considered to bring more than 300 employees from Farnborough back to Fanum House in September.

If the plans go ahead, the number of people working in Fanum House (pictured above) by the end of the summer will be about 1,000.

This would make Basingstoke once again the headquarters of the motoring organisation, which this year is celebrating its centenary.

Since November, up to 450 jobs have been shed by the AA, which has some 2,150 people based mostly in Basingstoke and Farnborough.

The redundancies have been in HR, marketing, PR, legal, finance and other central support teams.

These include the loss of 73 Roadwatch staff in six offices around the UK as the AA focuses on the provision of traffic information to customers online and via mobile phones rather than carrying out broadcasts to local and national radio networks.

AA chief executive Tim Parker said at the time of the redundancies: "We need to become far more effective to re-establish clear lines of accountability for our key businesses.

"Similarly, our Roadwatch operation faces increasing demands from third parties to provide data and broadcasting under their own brands with diminishing benefit to the AA's own brand."

The AA moved its headquarters from London's Leicester Square to Basingstoke in 1973, when Fanum House was officially opened by The Queen.

The building helped give Basing View its "Dallas" name tag and signalled the start of modern Basingstoke as major companies decided to make it their corporate base, changing it from being a market town to its position as a major player in the regional economy today.