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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many civil servants working in the Levelling Up Taskforce are based in (a) London, (b) the South East of England and (c) outside of London and the South East of England.

Levelling up is a cross-Government policy. With regard to work on levelling up in my Department specifically, officials from across the Department, which has 22 office locations across the UK, are working on this flagship policy. In March 2020, 23% of the Department’s workforce was outside of London; we now have 32% of our workforce outside of London, an increase of c400 FTE. The Department has also made good progress in opening our second HQ in Wolverhampton in 2021 and so far have over 200 roles in post or in the process of onboarding, including senior officials. Within that, the small Levelling Up Taskforce comprises 30 officials based in London offices and home addresses across the country.

* The data in the table includes a figure of 172.1 for ‘Other’ which is predominantly made up of staff who have very recently transferred into the Department from Cabinet Office as a result of a Machinery of Government change. We are currently in the process of working through and confirming the locations for these individuals.