The managing partner of Lovewell Blake said the opening of a new office in Bury St Edmunds was critical to the expansion plans of the chartered accountants.

The new premises on the Hillside Business Park, which are expected to open soon, come little more than a year after the firm set up joint premises at Long Melford.

Douglas Young said that this was a particularly exciting period for Lovewell Blake which had, last autumn, moved its Norwich office to new premises and merged with another East Anglian firm, Banham Graham.

'We appreciate that Bury St Edmunds is a key business centre for Suffolk and our new office there will give us better coverage of East Anglia,' he said.

'We already have a number of clients in the area, which will give us the critical mass to move ahead.'

He said the firm's strategy was characterised by two qualities: fierce independence and specialist skills.

'We strongly value our independence,' he added.

'We know that second-tier national firms are very influenced by national core strategies which take the focus away from the local community. We look to respond to local needs to provide the service the market requires.'

The firm has 26 partners and 233 staff in 10 offices across Norfolk and Suffolk.