By Lucy Phillips
23 July 2010
Plans to abolish all regional government offices in England have been announced.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said he intended ‘in principle’ to abolish eight government offices, covering the Northeast, the Southwest, the Southeast, West Midlands, East Midlands, Northwest, east of England and Yorkshire & the Humber. The closure of the government office for London has already been announced.
A final decision over the future of the offices, which co-ordinate national and local policy on behalf of 13 government departments, will be made in the autumn Spending Review. Their functions range from regenerating communities to tackling housing needs and fighting crime.
But Pickles said the offices had ceased to be ‘voices of the region in Whitehall’, and ‘become agents of Whitehall to intervene and interfere in localities’.
‘[They] are a fundamental part of the “command and control” apparatus of England’s over-centralised state,’ he added.
The move has angered unions, riled by the prospect of 1,700 job losses as a result of the closures.
‘This decision is crass. It cuts against the grain of what the coalition government professes it wants to achieve with its “Big Society”,’ said Julie Flanagan, a negotiator for the Prospect union.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka described the step as a ‘power grab’ for Westminster. ‘This decision has been taken at a political level, with no consultation and no thought for the effect and cost of the essential regional services these offices provide. We do not believe it is necessary and we will fight it along with the devastating cuts being proposed elsewhere,’ he said.
23 July 2010
Plans to abolish all regional government offices in England have been announced.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said he intended ‘in principle’ to abolish eight government offices, covering the Northeast, the Southwest, the Southeast, West Midlands, East Midlands, Northwest, east of England and Yorkshire & the Humber. The closure of the government office for London has already been announced.
A final decision over the future of the offices, which co-ordinate national and local policy on behalf of 13 government departments, will be made in the autumn Spending Review. Their functions range from regenerating communities to tackling housing needs and fighting crime.
But Pickles said the offices had ceased to be ‘voices of the region in Whitehall’, and ‘become agents of Whitehall to intervene and interfere in localities’.
‘[They] are a fundamental part of the “command and control” apparatus of England’s over-centralised state,’ he added.
The move has angered unions, riled by the prospect of 1,700 job losses as a result of the closures.
‘This decision is crass. It cuts against the grain of what the coalition government professes it wants to achieve with its “Big Society”,’ said Julie Flanagan, a negotiator for the Prospect union.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka described the step as a ‘power grab’ for Westminster. ‘This decision has been taken at a political level, with no consultation and no thought for the effect and cost of the essential regional services these offices provide. We do not believe it is necessary and we will fight it along with the devastating cuts being proposed elsewhere,’ he said.
