More than 21,000 civil service roles have now been relocated out of London under the Places for Growth programme, new Cabinet Office data reveals.
The latest update, released yesterday, includes data for the first quarter of 2024 and means it is very likely the target set in 2020 to relocate 22,000 jobs has been met already – although this will not be confirmed until data for the second quarter of 2024 is released.
The Places for Growth programme, which was launched in 2020, initially aimed to relocate 22,000 jobs from London by 2030. Last year, Rishi Sunak’s government announced it would bring this forward to 2027.
With almost 3,000 roles relocated in the first quarter of 2024 and now 21,002 jobs in total since 2020, the programme is way ahead of schedule to meet this target.
A second target, to have 50% of senior civil service jobs located outside the capital is looking much less certain, however.
The latest data – which is for Q4 of 2023 – shows 31.4% of SCS roles are now based outside London, compared to 24.8% in the same quarter of 2020.
Which departments have had the biggest share of job moves?
The Home Office has relocated the largest number of roles (4,050), followed by the Ministry of Justice (2,539) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (2,174) – which recently reverted to its former identiy of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Four other departments have relocated more than 1,000 jobs: the Cabinet Office (1,503); the now-defunct Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (1,253); the Department of Health and Social Care (1,068); and the Department for Transport (1,023).
Since the third quarter of 2023, moves are no longer recorded as coming from BEIS, and are instead attributed to its replacement departments: the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero; the Department for Business and Trade; and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
DESNZ has so far relocated 240 jobs, while DBT has moved 180 and DSIT 173.
Where have most jobs gone?
The north west of England remains the region with the most relocations since 2021, with 4,315 jobs having moved there, followed by Yorkshire and the Humber, with 3,765.
The five UK cities that have received the most civil service roles as a result of the relocations are Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Sheffield. More than 7,000 jobs have been relocated to these cities.
Since 2020, more than 3,000 roles have been moved outside of England, with 1,935 moving to Scotland, 1,009 to Wales and 280 to Northern Ireland.