'Thousands of civil servants to move'

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thousands of civil servant jobs could be moved out of London and the south east by 2010-11 if Labour wins another term in government under plans to cut costs and create jobs elsewhere in the country.

According to a leaked 'Smarter Government' report by Treasury Secretary Liam Byrne, the plan is that only posts that involve ministerial support or personal interaction need to stay down south, while backroom functions in some government departments could be merged and various quangos could be scrapped. The report is also said to recommend cutting the overall cost of the senior civil service.

However, a Treasury spokesman has called claims made in the Guardian about the report "speculation", adding: "Following Sir Michael Lyons' report on relocation in 2004, the government announced plans to relocate 20,000 posts out of London and the south east by March 2010. In the budget, the government announced that 19,000 relocations had already been achieved and as a result the government would increase the target to 24,000 posts by 2010-11."

Stuart Ladds, relocation programme manager, government estate transformation unit at the OGC, spoke at Public Service Events' Operational Efficiency Conference on 18 November. Find out what he had to say in the December issue of Public Servant magazine