‘Snobs’ in Whitehall holding back North
Jul 9 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
EMPLOYMENT chiefs have given up on a “frustrating” battle to persuade the Government to keep its promise of relocating jobs out of London.
Whitehall bosses have been accused of taking a snobbish approach to moving well-paid and influential jobs out of the capital and into the North East. Their reluctance to invest in the region has seen thousands of jobs move out of the South East but just 750 of these have come to the region.
And these gains have been offset by a reduction in the overall number of public-sector jobs in the region.
One NorthEast (ONE) board member and Newcastle Council leader John Shipley last night dismissed as a sham a Government promise to relocate thousands of top-level jobs out of the South as it was revealed ONE is to slim down its efforts to convince ministers to relocate work north.
A Government report, the Lyons Review, had previously shown that up to 20,000 jobs could be moved from the South, but despite the Labour Party promising to help boost regional economies by shifting jobs, the North has seen little improvement.
Last May, a House of Commons committee told the Government it could save £78m a year by relocating 10,000 jobs to the North.
But despite this pressure, One NorthEast is having to abandon its role in promoting the region to Government decision-makers after spending £40,000 and a significant amount of officers’ time but achieving few successes.
Mr Shipley told The Journal this is down to a lack of co-operation in Government departments and a view among Whitehall civil servants that only backroom functions should be moved out of London, with the more important jobs remaining in the capital. He said One NorthEast has taken the decision to step back from its role in leading the regional campaign following a limited return on investment to date.
Mr Shipley went on: “Lyons has proved a major letdown, and despite so many promises, very little has been done.
“The situation here has been complicated by a reduction in Civil Service jobs overall. However, there was originally an expectation that we would see top-level Civil Service jobs spread out across the UK.
“But the truth is this has just not happened. There are very few examples of senior management or research jobs moving away from London.”
Accusing Whitehall bosses of snobbery, he added: “Whitehall seems to think that it is OK to disperse the back office jobs here but it is almost fundamentally opposed to seeing policy or other senior jobs leave. If we have a genuinely united country then we must see an end to this centralisation.”
Ian Williams, One NorthEast director of business and industry, said: “We have presented in Whitehall the region’s powerful case as a prime location for any jobs being transferred out of London and the South East.”
I'm not surprised, says union boss
TUC regional secretary Kevin Rowan said he wasn’t particularly surprised as he had been sceptical about the Government’s will to move the jobs north in the first place.
He said: “We said from the start that there would be a lot of difficulty in attracting these positions and that has proved to be the case.” Newcastle North MP Doug Henderson last night questioned the wisdom of One NorthEast abandoning its attempts to get the jobs relocated north.
He said: “I would have thought one of the most important roles of a development agency is in relocating jobs here. Public-sector jobs are an area where we should have a real chance to see high- level jobs come to the region, and it is a shame One NorthEast is not actively pursuing this.
“We are talking about jobs that could bring a real boost; we should be doing all we can to keep this on track.”
