Exclusive: Shake-up in Civil Service may bring jobs boom

Today officials launch a prospectus aimed at stealing a march on other regions of the UK in the attempt to woo departments and agencies due to be moved out of London to cut costs.

A Government White Paper published last year raised the prospect of tens of thousands of the 132,000 civil servants and 90,000 employees of "arm's-length bodies" currently based in London and the South East moving to cheaper areas.

Now regional development agency Yorkshire Forward has produced the prospectus, seen by the Yorkshire Post, which says if the region were to win a quarter of the relocations it would be worth nearly 2bn to the economy and create 14,000 indirect jobs in the supply chain.

It highlights quality of life, cheap house prices and childcare, and regenerated cities as selling points for employees, while pointing to low operating costs, workforce skills and already high numbers of public sector jobs in the region as factors to convince mandarins to come to Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Forward chief executive Tom Riordan said: "Yorkshire and Humber has an excellent standard of living and the right infrastructure to support the relocation of Government operations into the region.

"We have a strong track record of successfully achieving this in a way which maintains the highest quality of service and keeps costs down; enabling resources to be redirected into frontline services where they are most needed.

"We have the physical capacity and available skill base in frontline and back office support services. We also have a young and growing local population to support the sector long-term.

"With excellent transport links to London and one of the most advanced telecommunications networks in Europe, we believe any relocation to this region would not only positively impact our economy, but would play an important role in helping the public sector deliver more efficient services, using new technology to better inform the public."

Ministers announced plans to move more jobs out of London last year as part of a plan to dramatically cut the costs of central government while improving the way it works.

About 19,000 civil service posts have already been moved following the Lyons Review in 2004, with 4,000 – 22 per cent – of them coming to Yorkshire and the Humber. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has a base in Sheffield, the Department of Health in Leeds, the Department for Work and Pensions in the Dearne Valley, and HM Revenue and Customs in Bradford.

Officials claim if a similar percentage of the next wave of jobs came to the region it would provide a huge economic boost but also create thousands of jobs in the "supply chain", such as service industries catering for the increased population.

Regional Minister Rosie Winterton, who commissioned the prospectus, said the region had a good track record of attracting relocations.

"The aim of this new prospectus is to highlight again all that our region has to offer to encourage more public sector jobs and the economic and social benefits that they bring.