Plan to dismantle Whitehall revealed

Author: The Guardian - Nov 26, 2009

Tens of thousands of civil servants may be moved out of London in a dramatic downscaling of Whitehall under Labour plans to cut public debts and instil a culture of "smarter government''.

Leaked sections of a report to be published in a fortnight reveal that the government wants a review into the possibility of relocating some of the 132,000 civil servants and 90,000 employees of "arm's-length bodies" currently based in London and the south-east.

The review, to be delivered in time for the next budget, would be guided by the principle that only those "required for ministerial support or personal interaction" would stay in the south-east.

The plan would meet the government's twin aims of cutting public spending and boosting localism, enabling civil servants to co-ordinate better with local communities while living and working in less expensive regions.

Other moves contained in the draft seen by the Guardian include:

• Reducing the "cost" of senior civil servants. The Treasury is concerned that the number of senior civil servants has risen from 3,100 in the 90s to 4,300.

• Cutting the number of quangos across Whitehall. The government is keen to reduce the number of skills services such as Lifelong Learning UK by 30 over three years; turn the 15 advisory committees on agriculture into a single board; combine the Sentencing Guidelines Council and Sentencing Advisory Panel into one body; and abolish two further legal service quangos.

• Bringing in new guidelines aimed at making it harder to set up a new quango. Ministers would have to make their case to the House of Commons. There would also be a new rule that would see any new quango disbanded within a year should it prove to have failed to perform its role.

• Merging the "backroom" operations of some government ministries, although the draft report does not suggest candidates for merger.

Go to the original article here

Regeneration in practice: lessons from across the pond

'One-in, one-out' rule aims to slash red tape

Urban parish council goes to the vote

Councils to pilot universal credit

The week ahead: 06/02/12-11/02/12

Join Localis Work in progess Calendar Videos

News Publications Events

Regeneration in practice: lessons from across the pond
by By Alex Thomson, The Guardian - Local Government Network

Breathing new life into regeneration
by Alex Thomson, The MJ

Let the local authority clamour for more devolved power begin
by Steven Howell (in the Guardian, Public Leaders Network)

Local regeneration is about economic and social wellbeing
by Alex Thomson (in the Guardian, Local Government Network)

Plan to dismantle Whitehall revealed

Related Pages