RELOCATION
Public sector relocation promises wider benefits
Public sector relocations are firmly on the agenda, with much of the impetus coming from the drive for improved efficiency in government. However, although efficiency savings are a crucial motivation for civil service dispersal, they are not the whole story, and there are more positive aspects to relocation than, at its most basic level, seeking to accommodate fewer people in smaller, cheaper space, in less expensive parts of the county. It is important for the wider benefits to be considered, says Nick Carter
UK sporting structure. Civil service departments could not only benefit from co-location with other departments, but share functions and facilities and enable new ways of working and collaborating to provide even greater efficiency gains.
Nick Carter is chairman of Prospect Leicestershire
O
n a national scale, public sector
relocation would not
only save costs but contribute to more balanced regional economic development and reinforce the modernisation of government.
Enhancing key regional ‘knowledge-pools’ is a key aspect of this. Civil service clusters should be built around the strengths of an area – for example in Leicestershire around space science, innovation in education or health care.
Loughborough, for example, offers a compelling case for the relocation of sports and leisure- related civil service activity out of London and the south east. Loughborough University’s recently opened £15 million SportPark is already the head office for a host of national sport bodies, and clusters like this would allow public sector organisations to work together and share best practice to provide an even more integrated
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There are proven benefits to regional economies associated with public sector relocation such as increases in consumer expenditure and greater local buying of goods and services, as well as diversifying the local economy, bringing greater confidence to local property markets, encouraging further development and regeneration activity and attracting greater private sector investment.
The regions won’t be the only ones benefitting from relocation. For relocating organisations, and their employees, Leicestershire, for example, would provide great benefits.
Leicestershire boasts a central location, great national and international transport links and easy access to the fastest transport facilities which would be a key factor in reducing the old fashioned London-centric image of central government.
The area boasts a substantial skilled and ethnically-diverse workforce, supported by the county’s three world-class universities and impressive further education network.
Property prices average less
than half those of London. Leicestershire offers a range of property solutions, particularly in Leicester city centre, close to railway stations. These include affordable grade A office space and low-cost, high-quality housing.
In addition, there are substantial regeneration projects planned that we believe will help attract public sector relocation, including a major project to improve people’s first impressions of the city and county. It includes extensive plans for facelifts for the stations at Leicester and Loughborough, revamping the buildings themselves and creating attractive new public spaces around them.
At Leicester, the new station gateway is an integral part of the next stage in creating the city’s business quarter, adding to the Grade A Colton Square development, completed in 2008.
This expansion could provide accommodation for more than 3,000 public sector employees over eight years. Plans include a hotel and 50,000 sq m of Grade A offices, a multi-level car park, and a new station concourse and entrance gateway.
Relocation is a way to save money, of course, but it is also an opportunity to create civil service clusters in high quality accommodation in a central location with outstanding
Sep/Oct 10
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