Keir Starmer has succeeded in forcing senior civil servants out of a luxury central London office, despite them previously objecting because they didn’t want to lose the view of Buckingham Palace. In a new announcement, the Cabinet Office has confirmed thousands more civil servants are set to be moved out of London and out into the real world.
In addition to the personal move, the government is also shutting down 11 central London offices, saving a whopping £94 million per year. One of the offices is 102 Petty France, an enormous concrete tower in St James overlooking Green Park, and currently the home of the Department of Justice. In February Lord Agnew, who served as Boris Johnson’s minister for government efficiency, bemoaned that while he had managed to get the contract for 102 Petty France terminated before leaving office, this had been subsequently overturned “because the civil servants didn’t want to lose the lovely view”.
In total the number of mandarins working in the capital will fall by 12,000 as a result of the new decision, and instead will be relocated to 13 other towns and cities bringing £729 million in local economic benefits to their new homes by 2030.
These towns and cities include: Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Greater Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Tyneside, Sheffield and York.
Aberdeen and Manchester will getting a greater number of new civil servants, thanks to two new planned Government campuses covering AI and energy.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden, said: “To deliver our Plan for Change, we are taking more decision-making out of Whitehall and moving it closer to communities all across the UK.”
“By relocating thousands of Civil Service roles we will not only save taxpayers money, we will make this Government one that better reflects the country it serves.
“We will also be making sure that Government jobs support economic growth throughout the country.
“As we radically reform the state, we are going to make it much easier for talented people everywhere to join the Civil Service and help us rebuild Britain.”
In addition to moving civil servants out of London, Mr McFadden has already announced a major cull of 20% of his department’s staff – a move he hopes to inspire other departments to also begin rounds of redundancies.
In recent weeks the Cabinet Office confirmed wider plans to cut the cost of the state by 15% by 2030, saving around £2.2 billion.
As part of the spending review, Mr McFadden has written to all government departments demanding that they relocate their key roles out of London.
Other departments will now submit plans for how many roles they plan to move to each of the locations.
