Government will sell off £1.5 billion of buildings to send 800 civil servants to Yorkshire

The government efficiency minister told The Yorkshire Post that the move will be a “good thing for civil servants, who will be able to live in this beautiful region”.

The Government’s new Property Strategy, published today, places Levelling Up as the top of its three missions to transform how many buildings it owns and runs.

It notes that “the Civil Service presence in places across the UK will make a tangible contribution to levelling up in those communities.”

This comes after the Government reduced the number of central London offices to 36 from 63 in 2018.

It is understood that roles from all levels in the civil service will be sent to cities largely split between York, Leeds and Sheffield, following a commitment for 50 per cent of senior civil servants to be based outside London by 2030.

In addition to current departments including The Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Department for Health and Social Care and Department for Education, it is expected that the Cabinet Office and Government Legal Department are also set to be heading to the region.

Plans have already moved 7,000 jobs out of London, including 1,389 moved to Yorkshire and the Humber.

"The new Government Property Strategy will let departments make further commitments to move civil servants to Yorkshire, continuing the impressive progress which has seen around 1400 roles moved to the county, more than any other,” Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister for government efficiency told The Yorkshire Post.

“This will be a good thing for civil servants, who will be able to live in this beautiful region, and for Yorkshire."

“We are cutting the cost of the public estate so that we can return money to the taxpayer.

“All spending on government property needs to be justified.

“This will also help us deliver the Places for Growth programme, which will allow greater savings and mean the government is closer to the communities it serves."

The new strategy will involve selling £1.5 billion of property in the next three years to see government staff consolidated into fewer buildings.

The Cabinet Office also expects that £500 million of savings will be made by reducing the operating costs of running departmental buildings as well as using “modern building materials and energy sources”.

It comes as the Government agreed a package of funding of over a billion pounds to secure the long-term future of London’s transport network.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said the settlement includes almost £1.2 billion of upfront funding and matches the Mayor for London’s pre-pandemic spending plans.

These include new Piccadilly line trains as well as modernisations and upgrades, including support for the repair of Hammersmith Bridge and extension of the Northern Line.

Continued work on introducing driverless trains on the London Underground is part of the agreement, according to DfT.

It comes the week after Transport for the North, which works to improve transport in areas including Yorkshire, revealed that it had lost almost £70 million in funding, after Westminster took control of the Northern Powerhouse Rail Project.