Tax warning as Gordon Brown plans fresh cuts

Dec 8 2009 by William Green, The Journal

Brown promises he will move Civil Service jobs out of London - again

THE relocation of thousands of civil service jobs to the region is a “real and live prospect”, according to No 10.

Gordon Brown’s official spokesman told The Journal that the Prime Minister was “very committed” to shifting jobs out of Whitehall.

The pledge yesterday came after Mr Brown unveiled his new blueprint to get Whitehall into shape amid a spending squeeze sparked by the need to cut Britain’s £175bn deficit.

The Smarter Government report said 10% of the remaining 132,000 civil service jobs in London and the South East could be moved out, with relocations also possible among the 90,000 public servants in arms-length bodies.

A review on relocation of civil jobs will now get under way and report in time for the next Budget, likely in March if the general election is not held first.

Mr Brown’s official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister is very committed to this. The desire to move functions out of Whitehall, which is obviously a much more expensive place than other parts of the country, is a real and live prospect.”

Details about regional centres that could be chosen for jobs had not been detailed, he added.

But he also said: “Newcastle is one of them where there have been Government agencies that have very successfully been moved out of London and have flourished.”

Regional business and council chiefs have welcomed any plans to relocate jobs to the region, but sounded a cautious note with previous pledges of similar action only having a limited effect.

Four years ago the region was promised its fair share of 20,000 jobs to be moved out of London and the South under the Lyons Review that reported Mr Brown, then the Chancellor.

But the North East still only has just over 6% of civil service jobs in Britain.

Simon Henig, leader of Labour-controlled Durham County Council, yesterday strongly welcomed any relocation of jobs to the region as an “obvious” step because of the lower costs in the North East.

“Why not move a whole Government department to the North East?” he said. “This to me has been a missing trick for a long time and it means new reforms aren’t just focused on London.”

The Tories said the Prime Minister had failed to implement the recommendations of the Lyons review, which called for a radical slimming down of Whitehall headquarters and a “strongly enforced presumption against London and South East locations for new Government bodies and activities”.