Budget 2010: Yorkshire could benefit from civil servant moves

AN ANNOUNCEMENT to relocate 15,000 civil servants from London led Chancellor Alistair Darling’s agenda for government savings and also gave the opportunity for Yorkshire cities to benefit from the move.

Mr Darling said included in the move would be the transfer of 1,000 Ministry of Justice jobs from the capital.

The announcement will no doubt fuel further specualation that Yorkshire’s job market and economy could be boosted by the move.

Rumours have been rife in Leeds over the past few months that civil service posts could be coming to the West Yorkshire city.

The relocation of 15,000 jobs from London will be completed in phases over the next five years.

Terry Jones, of BDO, said: “It’s a good thing as a cost saving measure that civil servants are being moved out of London to the regions but the timescale to generate the benefit to local authorities is not known.

“By December last year 4,794 civil servants had moved out of London to the North West and 4,262 to Yorkshire out of a total of 21,500. But we don’t yet know how many will be coming to each region in the future, and more importantly, when.”