Latest figures reveal that over 18,200 roles have been
successfully relocated out of London under the Places for Growth
programme.
Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and Sheffield were the top
five UK cities to receive the most roles
Plans announced to invest £118m in a state-of-the-art UK
Government Hub in Darlington, supporting the relocation of a
further 1,450 government roles.
The Places for Growth programme has successfully relocated 18,283
civil service roles from London to locations across the United
Kingdom, putting the government further ahead of schedule against
its commitment to relocate 22,000 roles by 2027.
These latest relocation figures follow on from the Government’s
recent decision to bring forward its original target of
relocating 22,000 roles from 2030 to 2027, as it takes the
long-term decisions to change this country for the better and
deliver a Civil Service that is representative of the communities
it serves.
The region benefiting the most from role relocation is the North
West, followed by Yorkshire and the Humber, with 3,720 and 3,392
roles relocated since 2021, respectively.
Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, and Sheffield are the
five UK cities that have received the most roles under Places for
Growth. Over 7,300 roles have been relocated to these cities
collectively since 2021, with 826 alone relocated in the last
quarter of 2023.
The relocation of roles is also helping deliver on the
government’s commitment to levelling up and driving regional
economic growth across the country; government modelling at the
outset of the programme indicated Places for Growth could provide
an economic boost of between £260m - £1.4bn in total across the
UK. Latest relocation studies suggest a local economic benefit of
£30 million per 1,000 roles relocated.
Places for Growth is also helping the civil service to become
more representative of the entire United Kingdom. Since 2020,
3,224 roles have been relocated outside England including 95
Senior Civil Service roles. 1,935 civil services roles have been
relocated to Scotland, 1,009 to Wales and 280 to Northern
Ireland.
Minister for the Cabinet Office & Paymaster General, , said:
Our plans to move more government roles outside of London
continue to progress at a pace; month by month, we are seeing the
transformation of our civil service into an organisation that
better reflects the perspectives of people from across the United
Kingdom.
We also remain focused on our commitment to ensure half of all
UK-based senior civil servants based outside of London by 2030 —
creating opportunities for talent from all corners of the country
to rise to the highest levels of the civil service.
In Darlington, the government announced today that a planning
application had been submitted to build a state-of-the-art,
four-storey UK Government hub on Brunswick Street. Construction
of the new government offices is expected to begin later this
year and be completed in early 2027.
The new hub will increase the total number of Darlington-based
civil servants working to over 2,300, 1,450 of whom will be
located in the Brunswick Street hub.
During his visit today to meet with senior officials in
Darlington, Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office,
, said:
Brunswick Street, situated right in the heart of Darlington, will
soon be home to a critical government hub, and as the government
footprint in North England continues to grow, we will create
further opportunities for people from across the country to work
in the civil service.
