HM Treasury has stepped up efforts to recruit the new officials who will be based at its Economic Campus in Darlington with the launch of campaigns to fill more than one dozen roles.
Meanwhile, senior officials will tomorrow set up stall at Darlington College’s careers fair to tie in with the launch of the government’s “Closer to Home” campaign, which is designed to raise awareness of long-term proposals to move civil service roles out of the capital.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak used his March budget to confirm Darlington as the location for HM Treasury’s long-proposed northern campus. Currently based in Bishopsgate House, alongside colleagues from the Department for Education, the Economic Campus will move to a “temporary” home in the centre of the town next year. It is ultimately expected to be the main workplace for 200-300 Treasury staff.
The opportunity to be based in Darlington is a feature of many Treasury job advertisements, which flag the Economic Campus as an alternative to the department’s main headquarters at 1 Horse Guards Road in London.
However as of yesterday, HM Treasury was recruiting for 14 roles that specified Darlington as the sole location. They include: one deputy director role, with a salary of £71,000; a senior fiscal analyst post, which attracts up to £54,000 a year; seven policy adviser roles paying up to £54,000; and a head of people strategy role, which pays up to £63,000.
Sunak spent his first day working at the campus’ start-up Darlington base last Friday.
“It is fantastic to see more job opportunities opening up this week at our brand-new Darlington Economic Campus,” he said.
“We are giving talented people in the North East the opportunity to work in the heart of government, making decisions on the most important issues for our country.”
The chancellor urged people to visit Darlington College’s careers fair on Thursday, where Treasury officials will be offering an insight on civil service life alongside counterparts from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for International Trade.
HM Treasury said the Closer to Home recruitment campaign would promote civil service roles being moved out of the capital as part of the Places for Growth programme.
In addition to the North East it will target Wales and Yorkshire and the Humber with adverts online, in local newspapers, and in places such as gyms, bus shelters and shopping centres.
Despite the government’s target of moving 22,000 civil service jobs out of the capital by the end of the decade, annual headcount statistics released in July showed the number of officials based in the capital had actually increased between March 2020 and March 2021.
According to the data, 101,930 civil servants were based in London as of the end of March this year, up from 91,660 one year before.
However the figures came against a backdrop of continued growth in the civil service headcount, which the Cabinet Office said increased across all regions over the 12-month period.