The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is planning to close six offices across England in a move expected to affect hundreds of staff.
The offices in Birmingham, Exeter, Newcastle, Sheffield, Truro and Warrington will all shut over the next two years under the plans, which the department has announced to staff and unions.
At the same time, MHCLG is set to expand its presence at five locations – London, Wolverhampton, Darlington, Manchester and Bristol.
An MHCLG spokesperson said: “We have been engaging with unions and staff about a number of proposals – including plans to expand five offices outside of London and close six offices over the next two years, as leases come to an end.
“The department will continue to have offices in every English region, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and all staff affected will be able to continue in their roles in one of these locations.”
MHCLG has committed to retain other offices in Nottingham, Leeds, Cambridge and Plymouth, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Liverpool, Hemel Hempstead, Hastings and Norwich, which it says will provide coverage across the UK.
The department hopes the restructuring of its estate will enable staff to work more closely together, access better career pathways and receive more support from senior leaders.
The PCS union slammed the announcement and asked for an urgent meeting.
A spokesperson for PCS said: “It is unacceptable for these decisions to be announced without proper consultation. We demand an urgent meeting with management to discuss what is a very serious situation that will affect up to 400 of our members across the country.”
Office for Place to be scrapped
Separately, on Tuesday minister of state for housing and planing Matthew Pennycook announced that MHCLG is scrapping the Office for Place – the department's Stoke-on-Trent based organisation set up to promote good design in the built environment.
Last year the Sunak administration announced that the Office for Place would be spun out of the then Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, becoming an arm's-length body in the process.
Pennycook said spending decisions taken at the Budget and the re-setting of departmental budgets had forced MHCLG to conclude that supporting improvements to the quality and design of new homes and communities would “be more efficiently and effectively delivered by the department itself”.
“The government is not downgrading the importance of good design and placemaking, or the role of design coding in improving the quality of development,” Pennycook said.
“Rather, by drawing expertise and responsibility back into MHCLG, I want the pursuit of good design and placemaking to be a fully integrated consideration as the government reforms the planning system, rolls out digital local plans and provides support to local authorities and strategic planning authorities.
“I also believe that embedding this work within MHCLG will allow experience to be better reflected in decision-making, as well as integrated within an existing delivery team in Homes England already focused on design and placemaking.”
Pennycook told MPs the decision would not impact on wider government commitments to Stoke, including te award of £19.8m for the city's Levelling Up Partnerships programme.
Good-design advocate Nicholas Boys Smith is interim chair of the Office for Place. A recruitment campaign to find a permanent chief executive for the organisation had launched in August, weeks after Labour seized power in the general election.