Recommendation 10

Previous governments which implemented similar programmes of civil service relocation acknowledged the risks and potential disadvantages–for example, significant upfront costs of relocation and redundancy packages, plus a loss of efficiency and coherence from moving policy roles far away from Whitehall. The Government is doing things differently this time–for example, generally recruiting new starters to regional offices to fill vacancies when they arise rather than relocating existing staff relying on videoconferencing, and seeking to relocate more SCS posts in order to create more senior career pathways outside London. This approach does, however, present novel risks, such as the potential development of a two-tier departmental culture, if regional offices mainly comprise new starters who have never worked in Whitehall. A further risk is that departments may be exclusively filling vacancies to locations outside London, even where such posts require significant presence in London, in order to meet Places for Growth targets.