The Princess Royal has officially opened the new Headquarters building of the Commander-in-Chief Fleet at Whale Island in Portsmouth.

The Henry Leach Building is named in honour of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Leach, who was the First Sea Lord during the Falklands Conflict in 1982.

Sir Henry was also at the ceremony, at HMS Excellent.

The Princess Royal toured the building, which sits beside Portsmouth Harbour, and met a large number of staff who work there.

The building has been designed to bring together staff who were spread between a number of different locations in Portsmouth and beyond, and will enable them to manage and support the Fleet on a more coherent and effective basis.

The five-storey building features open-plan office spaces, designed to promote teamwork and good communication.

These office spaces open on to two full-height vestibules, and are served by a variety of information technology systems to plug into the MOD network.

The new building, part of the overall Fleet First project, cost £20 million. But as Fleet First has saved £10 million a year since 2002 the building has in effect paid for itself – and will continue to save £10 million a year into the future.