19 March 2004
Sir Michael Lyons has urged ministers to identify a further 40,000 Whitehall posts for relocation, after Chancellor Gordon Brown this week backed plans to move 20,000 civil service jobs out of London.
Speaking to Public Finance in the wake of the chancellor's March 17 Budget statement, Lyons said his report on relocating staff, published on March 15, 'should be seen as the starting point for a larger movement of jobs, personnel and departmental offices' away from the Southeast.
'It's not a bad start,' he said, 'but it is now up to departments to take advantage of the opportunities to move more civil service staff and save additional cash.' Lyons said he believed that 40,000 posts could later join the exodus.
His report identifies 20,000 posts as suitable for the first wave of relocations to cities such as Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield over the next 15 years. It would help the government save around £2bn, slash 7,000 jobs through efficiency gains, and stimulate growth in the regions through public sector employment, Lyons reported.
But his comments will not sit well with Whitehall union leaders unhappy with Brown's revelation that the massive relocation of personnel will be accompanied by wider job cuts which will see 40,500 civil servants lose their jobs across two departments alone by 2008.
This emerged from the chancellor's detailed Budget review of Sir Peter Gershon's separate Whitehall efficiency review, due to be published in full this summer.
Brown revealed that the job cuts would be required at the Department for Work and Pensions and the soon-to-be-merged Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise.
The Public and Commercial Services union, which represents the lower to mid-ranking civil servants identified by Lyons as the likeliest targets of the reforms, described events as the 'day of the long knives'.
General secretary Mark Serwotka said he was seeking 'urgent meetings' with ministers. 'We are not against a more efficient civil service with more resources going to the front line, but it is difficult to see how services will improve with such swingeing cuts,' he said.
Senior civil service unions are also troubled by the upheaval. Stephen Bilby, president of the Union of Senior Revenue Officials, said: 'We are concerned about potential job losses, the locations in which our members will work in future and likely career patterns.'
PFmar2004
