Cabinet Office scrutinised on civil service relocation and property strategy
The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee will question the Cabinet Office Minister Alex Burghart and the Government Property Agency as part of its inquiry on the planning for the future of the Government’s estates.
Meeting details
MPs will press those responsible for the offices in which civil servants work, questioning them on the Government’s plans to save billions of pounds in staff and property costs, encourage regional growth and diversify the civil service by moving civil servants out of London.
The Committee will examine how shifting Government policy on civil service reduction has affected the Places for Growth programme, which outlines plans to relocate civil service posts out of London to new regional hubs.
The Cabinet Office stated in its written evidence that it saved £466,326 in 2021-22 in its relocation of posts to its second headquarters in Glasgow by not paying staff London-based salary scales.
MPs are likely to follow up on issues raised by NAO officials and trade union representatives in earlier sessions on civil service pay, quality of life and career prospects.
Oliver Dowden MP, Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, told the Committee in January that although the Government had scrapped its formal plans to cut the civil service by 91,000, it still expected civil service headcount to be decreased in line with reductions in departmental budgets.