Department for Education Offices (Runcorn)

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Wednesday 17th April 2013 Westminster Hall

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I congratulate the hon. Member for Halton (Derek Twigg) oninitiating this important debate, which has far-reaching implications for both my constituency and his own. I thank my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and his Department for engaging with all concerned parties, including the hon. Gentleman and me, alongside the council and representatives of the PCS union.

I should like to make two key points. First, I shall address the need for savings across the Department—to position the real impact that the closure could have on the Department’s balance books. Secondly, I shall address the human and economic cost that it would have on an area that has the potential to thrive, at a time when we should be addressing unemployment issues, not adding to them.

I do not dispute the need to look for economies, and the Department for Education is no less bloated than other Departments that have ballooned in size to unsustainable proportions. However, those efficiencies need to be just that—the business case must be sound to justify the action. I am convinced that these proposals are not sound. Significantly, there are gaps in both the long and the short-term expectations of savings.

Castle View house has been portrayed as a low-quality building in need of significant redevelopment. That is simply not the case. I have visited the building on numerous occasions, and compared with the wildly varying conditions of other public sector buildings, it is in very good condition, with excellent facilities. Even if a full refurbishment were required, the cost, as set out by Halton council’s response, would be one tenth of the £500,000 suggested by the Department’s review. In reality, the building has the second-lowest overheads of all the Department’s offices and the cost per square metre is just over one quarter of that for the Manchester Piccadilly site.

It is clear that a withdrawal from the area would have a negative impact and make it less easy to re-let or sell in the near future. That is clear from a consideration of other nearby Government buildings that have previously been closed. The overhead costs of Castle View as an unused building are a staggering £382,000 a year. That would swiftly impact on the balance sheets that the Department so desperately wants to correct.

The long-term impact of the decision has also not been considered sufficiently. The High Speed 2 route, which will connect up the country, will have a major terminus in the centre of Manchester, in the location of the Department for Education’s building. Although the line will not reach the city for some time, it is obvious that the building work for such a significant station will take years and result in the vacation of the offices sooner rather than later. That will be hugely costly and would, were the Castle View staff to relocate there, cause significant instability and uncertainty once more. Closing one office in Runcorn, sending staff to Manchester Piccadilly and then moving them again makes no sense whatever. It is clear that the scrutiny that we expect from a detailed analysis is lacking, and I urge the Department to have more foresight.

I should like to draw attention to the impact that the proposal will have on Halton Lea. Although some steps have been taken to produce an action plan for relocating staff to the Manchester branch, it is clear that such a move will leave many behind. Half of Halton Lea falls within the most deprived 5% of the country; the other half is within the bottom 15% and unemployment has risen to 9.4% in the past year. When we talk about closure, we are not talking just about comfortable civil servants having a longer commute—an issue that I am sure that my hon. Friend the Minister will address—but about those at the bottom of the employment scale falling out of work entirely. Service workers at the site cannot relocate, and as I have said previously, the chances of an instant re-let of the building are remote. That is not to mention that the shops and services around the area do not just benefit from but rely heavily on trade from these offices. Footfall at Halton Lea’s retail centre could drop by 20%—a drop that I am sure hon. Members will agree is too significant to ignore.

To summarise, Castle View house is the second least expensive building of the 12 Department for Education sites identified. It has excellent public transport and road links and free car parking on site. Halton Lea’s Castle View house would be difficult to re-let or sell in the short to medium term. Halton Lea is one of the most deprived wards in one of the most deprived communities in the country. Some 85% of the work force are local and it is therefore the most sustainable solution. Most of the people employed there live in the borough. Closure will only add to the borough’s socio-economic challenges. The Manchester Piccadilly site has staff from the whole of Greater Manchester.

When a proposal will change not how a Department is run but how a town will survive, we must look harder and think more clearly. I therefore respectfully urge the Secretary of State to review the plans in the same way as the former Secretaries of State did—namely, the right hon. Members for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) and for Morley and Outwood (Ed Balls) and the former Member for Norwich South. What is it that they saw in Castle View house that my right hon. Friend, at the moment, does not?

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[Graham Evans]

Is my hon. Friend aware that Halton borough council has suggested several alternatives to the existing building, based on the consultation? I do not agree with this, but it says that the proposal it is not economic; it is the most expensive option. There are various alternative locations in my constituency that have been put on the table—Rutland house, Vale house, Howard house, Clifton house—so there is no shortage of public sector properties available in Halton. It does not have to be shifted out of the community of Halton Lea to Manchester Piccadilly in Greater Manchester; it could be kept within the community, as there is no shortage of alternative buildings.

[Mr James Gray (in the Chair)]

Before the Minister replies, it might be helpful for hon. Members to know that we expect a Division in the main Chamber, possibly at 7.15 pm or earlier, so we might tailor our remarks to suit that probability.