Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Places for Growth Programme in identifying the potential for relocating government offices to Southampton.

The Places for Growth programme seeks to deliver the Government’s commitment to move Civil Service roles and public bodies out of London and the South East of England. This commitment was set out in the Conservative Party Manifesto of 2017 and then restated in the Industrial Strategy White Paper and the Government Estates Strategy (July 2018).

The Cabinet Office is supporting departments and public bodies to identify opportunities for relocation of roles to cities across the regions and nations of the United Kingdom. This will boost local economic growth and impact on the economic growth of wider city regions, and the United Kingdom as a whole, as well as ensure the administration of central government is distributed more evenly across the United Kingdom.

All locations remain under active consideration as potential relocation destinations. The programme will be looking to consult with a number of additional cities over the coming months and we would be happy for Southampton to be involved in this process.