The case for moving civil servants into areas away from London and the South has been made repeatedly, for many years, but still the North suffers piecemeal measures when it needs seismic transformation.

Latest analysis adds further complexity to the debate about whether such workers should be relocated.

The Northern Policy Foundation has warned the Government that moving 22,000 civil servants outside London could be “an unmitigated disaster” which costs the taxpayer around £600m –if it fails to learn from previous relocations.

It has analysed previous attempts at uprooting staff, made over the last 60 years, and found that “if locations are not carefully selected moves can be disastrous”.

Civil servants have come to Leeds in recent years. Pic: Simon Hulme.

However the think tank, which has eight Northern Tory MPs on its board, also said that if the correct locations are chosen the relocations “can be a powerful force for levelling up”, as they create thousands of high-quality jobs and opportunities.

This newspaper says that another key point is that decision-makers – not just staff in numbers – need to be placed in Yorkshire, the wider North and outside London more generally.

When it was announced five years ago that HM Revenue and Customs would set up a base at Wellington Place in Leeds for 6,000 civil servants, at least one national publication used the phrase “Whitehall of the North”.

As of March 2021, 21 per cent of the 484,880 people employed in the home civil service, across the UK and overseas, were based in London – an increase of almost 10,000 since March 2020 – according to the Institute for Government.

That a fifth remain in the capital at a time when rebalancing the UK is so high on the agenda clearly sends the wrong message.

Nothing, however, can beat having those who actually hold sway working in the places that desperately need their attention.

Civil service: More decision-makers needed outside London - The Yorkshire Post says