Parliament and Central Government: Relocation

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Tuesday 29th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Chester]

My Lords—

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Janke (LD)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

The right reverend Prelate has a very good point; if they have any sense, they will not.

[Lord Clark of Windermere]

My Lords, what I know is certain is that the people of the north of England would appreciate Civil Service jobs there. Before being so dismissive, would the Government be prepared to have discussions with the BBC, which took an inspired and successful decision to move so much of its activity to MediaCity, on the border of Salford and Manchester?

[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.