Parliament and Central Government: Relocation

Baroness Janke Excerpts

Tuesday 29th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Janke (LD)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)]

My Lords, we will go to the Bishops’ Bench.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

Yes, that was certainly a very good decision by the BBC. That is why the Government Property Unit, which is in charge of seeing how the departments work with their civil servants, is indeed trying to drive this radical reshaping of the Civil Service estate, and so encouraging departments to move their civil servants out of London, as I said earlier. That could well be to the north and it would certainly encourage people from the north to take those jobs.

[Baroness Janke]

My Lords, given the Government’s commitment to devolution and the reference in the Autumn Statement, do the Government have specific plans to devolve financial powers to local level? Has the Minister taken note of the various reports that state that, for the economic balance to be redressed away from London, financial and fiscal powers need to be given to local authorities across the country?

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

My Lords, the problem is that that could interfere with central budget considerations, and then the whole thing becomes a bit muddled.