Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Accepted
Paragraph: 98
Unproven economic and cultural benefits of civil service relocation programmes
Conclusion
Overall, the Cabinet Office has a number of successes to point to regarding the Places for Growth and Government Hubs programmes. The number of posts allocated to regional offices under Places for Growth is growing rapidly, and HMRC and the GPA have made significant progress in meeting their objectives of consolidating the office portfolio into a smaller number of larger, more modern buildings. However, these promising signs are undermined to an extent by weaknesses in the framing, reporting, and rationale for these programmes. Notably the reported economic and cultural benefits of civil service relocation have not been clearly demonstrated.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government stated that research underpinning the economic benefits of the Places for Growth programme has already been published, implying the benefits have been demonstrated.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
98
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
71. The Government welcomes the Committee’s recognition of the successes to date of the Places for Growth Programme and the Government Hubs Programme. The programme has relocated over 14,000 roles and is currently 96% of the way to committed 2025 milestones and 65% of the way to its 2030 target. Departments have established multiple second headquarters including Cabinet Office in Glasgow, DLUHC in Wolverhampton and FCDO in East Kilbride and launched Civil Service thematic campuses in Darlington and Sheffield.
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