Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward proposals to relocate (a) staff and (b) offices of his Department to Brighton; and if he will make a statement.

Whilst noting the many virtues of Brighton, as recognised by the conferring of City status to the towns of Brighton and Hove by Her Majesty in 2000, I am afraid I have to disappoint my hon. Friend. My Department has no current plans to dig out our bucket and spade and move to the seaside.

Since May 2010, my Department's priority has been to rationalise our wider estate to reduce costs. This has seen the Department surrender six leasehold office properties through a combination of lease breaks and expiries generating net savings in the period of around £7 million per annum. The Department has also successfully sub-let surplus space across its leasehold office estate during the same period, reducing the overall property costs by around £11.1 million.

The Department has also negotiated the early surrender of Eland House and is shortly scheduled to relocate to 2 Marsham Street to share premises with the Home Office. This move will reduce our Department's running costs by a further £9 million a year and generate savings for the taxpayer of £220 million over the lifetime of the building's lease. This illustrates the scope for Government and, indeed, the public sector as a whole to make sensible savings through better property management.

However, I commend the hon. Member for his cheerleading of the City as a place to do business.