After a period of heavy losses, UKA has decided to shut its base at the Alexander Stadium, which could save them £100,000 ($126,000/€114,000) a year in rent.

Staff will instead be asked to work from home with the organisation confirming they are moving to a "virtual office structure".

UKA posted losses of £1.8 million ($2.3 million/€2 million) in the last financial year, with reserves down from £2.2 million ($2.8 million/€2.5 million) to a worrying £430,000 (£544,000/€493,000).

In a statement sent to insidethegames, UKA said: "We can confirm that UK Athletics will be leaving its head office this summer.

"With a significant reduction in the size of workforce since 2020, and an increase in the number of staff working remotely following the pandemic, the size and cost of the tenancy is no longer justifiable.

"While we are working on a number of alternative workspace solutions for a small number of personnel, and may secure a smaller office tenancy in future in the immediate future UKA head office staff will move to a more sustainable virtual office structure."

Chief executive Jack Buckner told The Daily Mail in February that the "state of the organisation definitely gives me sleepless nights".

It has also been reported that UKA have not been able to pay key coaches for months and could be forced to lay-off as many as 10 members of staff.

A UK Athletics spokesperson told insidethegames that discussions had been going on since 2021 about whether the Birmingham headquarters remained viable given the reduced number of employees requiring to use it.

While between 80 and 110 staff members were based their during its peak usage, since the pandemic many employees have adopted the practice of working from home and the current using the Birmingham hub is now around 30.

It is believed that a smaller office may be established once a round of cost-cutting measures have been accomplished over the next 18 months.

This is not the first time the national federation for athletics has found itself in dire financial straits.

In 1997 the British Athletics Federation (BAF), which had been launched in October 1991, to form a single governing entity following the many years of fractured and often contending associations in the Home Countries, went into administration.

After a period of wrangling, UKA emerged as the new national governing body in 1999, with Britain's Commonwealth 1500m and 5,000m champion and former world 5,000m record holder Dave Moorcroft, who had been chief executive of BAF, filling the same role for UKA until 2006.