Political reporter
Thousands of civil servants are to be moved out of London under plans to save money and shift government jobs to offices across the country.
The government is aiming to cut the number of roles in London by 12,000 and close 11 offices in the capital to save £94m a year by 2032.
The changes will see two new government campuses opened in Manchester and Aberdeen, and roles created in other towns and cities.
Unions welcomed proposals to relocate officials but said they wanted more details on how civil servants would be impacted.
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said the government wanted to move decision-making “closer to communities all across the UK”.
He said: “By relocating thousands of civil service roles we will not only save taxpayers money, we will make this government one that better reflects the country it serves.”
Speaking to BBC 5 Live, McFadden said he wanted to embrace new technology allowing meetings to take place online, but that this would not mean civil servants would be remote working all the time.
“The same rule will apply wherever people are working in terms of the working from home question, which is we expect people to be in at least 60% of the time,” he said, adding, “people don’t all have to be in the same place anymore”.
McFadden added he wanted to create “a civil service that speaks with all the accents of the country, not just one” and allows career progression outside London.
Shadow Conservative Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said the plans showed Labour was “fundamentally unserious about reducing the size of the state and working more efficiently on behalf of taxpayers”.
He accused Labour of “shuffling things around and making empty promises”.
“Only the Conservatives are serious about reducing the size of the state and making it work more efficiently for British taxpayers,” he said.
Government departments are being asked to submit their plans for relocating staff, including senior civil servants, as part of a spending review.
A government source told the BBC the exact number of civil servants relocated will be determined by the spending review, which is due to be completed in June.
The Labour government has set out a number of reforms to shrink the size of the civil service, which ministers believe is bloated and inefficient.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has promised to reduce government running costs by 15% by the end of the decade, and the Cabinet Office is looking to cut 2,100 jobs in its department over the next two years.
The number of civil service staff has increased considerably since 2016, with the headcount topping 514,000 at the end of last year, according to the Institute for Government.
Last year, a government source told the BBC more than 10,000 civil servants jobs could be cut as part of Labour’s push for savings across all departments.
Regional campuses
On Wednesday, the government will outline plans to locate 50% of UK-based senior civil servants in regional offices by 2030.
The government wants to create three new regional campuses, one in Manchester focused on digital innovation and AI and a second in Aberdeen focused on energy. The third location is yet to be announced.
Manchester is already home to major offices of the science and culture departments, while Aberdeen houses the new Great British Energy headquarters.
Other roles will be created in Birmingham, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow, Darlington, Newcastle and Tyneside, Sheffield, Bristol, Edinburgh, Belfast and York, with the changes expected to bring £729m to the local economy by 2030.
Among the offices being closed in London is 102 Petty France, one of the largest government offices in the capital and home to around 7,000 civil servants in the Ministry of Justice, HM Courts and Tribunal Service, Crown Prosecution Service and the Government Legal Department.
The Government will also close 39 Victoria Street, which has been home to the Department of Health and Social Care since the end of 2017.
Prospect union general secretary Mike Clancy said hundreds of thousands of civil servants already work outside of London and welcomed plans to “empower” them.
But he added: “We have been here before with similar announcements, if this one is to be different, government needs to work closely with unions both on specific relocation plans and on the wider civil service reform agenda.”
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, said civil servants “need to be able to build careers for the longer-term across the UK, including in London where there will now be fewer opportunities”.
Penman said Wednesday’s announcement meant “uncertainty” for “civil servants working in offices whose closures have been announced today” and the FDA looked forward to seeing more detail.
