Keep fingers crossed for influx of civil servants

Sep 11 2003 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

Think Tank Catalyst has called for more bureaucrats to be moved out of London and the South-East as the only way to tackle the North/ South divide.

In fact there are plans afoot to do just that. In April Gordon Brown declared a review and estimated that 20,000 of the 90,000 civil servants based in London could be relocated.

The review is currently being undertaken by Sir Michael Lyons, director of the Institute of Local Government Studies at Birmingham University, and he will publish his final report in November.

Some two-thirds of all civil servants are currently based outside London and the South-East, but of that third it is believed many do jobs which relate to national functions and which could, in theory, be carried out elsewhere.

It would be surprising if this were not the case. With the ICT revolution it ought surely to be possible to put our bureaucrats in the Outer Hebrides without any loss of efficiency.

But it won't be as straightforward as that. The Scottish Executive plans to move the headquarters of Scottish National Heritage from Edinburgh, not to some remote Hebridean island, but to Inverness and they have met fierce opposition.

In fact, according to some accounts, a large number of the 220 staff affected is expected to resign rather than decamp to the Highlands.

And one can expect similar protests in the national capital. Londoners are, in my experience, the most parochial people in the country and you might as well ask them to relocate to Siberia as, say, Wigan.

It goes against the grain to say this, but I can have some sympathy with the bureaucrats, who will face finding new schools for children, new jobs for spouses and leaving behind family and friends.

On the other hand, that is precisely what those of us in the private sector have often had to do.

Also, we in the North-East have a big vested interest in the Lyons Review. Property consultants King Sturge have been working with Sir Michael to identify possible locations for public sector activities and, according to reports, Newcastle, Sunderland, Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Stockton, North Tyneside and Darlington are all possibilities.

We must hope that the North-East does draw lucky as I believe it could have the most far-reaching and beneficial effects on our economy and quality of life.

Not only would the arrival of maybe thousands of (reasonably) well-paid civil servants provide an immediate direct boost to the regional economy - and don't forget the huge capital gains from house sales - it would also have even greater indirect effects.

An influx of large numbers of the middle classes would mean a demand for quality housing, quality schools and quality public transport.

Let's just hope that with the Inland Revenue office at Longbenton we are not seen as already having had our fair share of civil service jobs.

And let's also hope, with Sir Michael's consultation period ending tomorrow, that our politicians have been lobbying hard.