Oral Answers to Questions

David Mowat Excerpts

Wednesday 4th September 2013 Commons Chamber

The Minister for the Cabinet Office was asked—

[David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)]

1. What progress the Government have made in response to the 2010 report on use of the Government estate.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

We are committed to saving money by, among other things, cutting our occupancy of property in London and elsewhere. We are consolidating into freehold space wherever practical. Since the general election, the central civil estate in London has been reduced by about 22%. Across the country we have cut estate costs by nearly £500 million and we are on track to deliver a further £80 million by the end of the current financial year.

[David Mowat]

I thank the Minister for that answer. The Smith report identified that 15,000 jobs could be moved from London to the English regions by 2015. That would first of all save money, but also correct the spending imbalance by which London has the highest current spending per head of any English region. Is there more we can do to make swifter progress?

[Mr Maude]

The Smith recommendations were, so far as I can see, made on an assumption of stable public sector employment. Owing to the size of the public sector deficit that the coalition Government inherited, public sector employment has been falling since then by more than 400,000, and the size of the civil service is down by about 73,000 since the election, so the priority has been to reduce the amount of property we occupy, rather than moving employment from one part of the country to another.