Brown’s hollow pledge on jobs

Aug 6 2007 by David Higgerson, Liverpool Daily Post

JUST under 1,000 Whitehall jobs have been earmarked for relocation to Merseyside and Cheshire as the Government finally begins to keep its promise to shift jobs out of London to the regions.

But figures obtained by the Liverpool Daily Post reveal that job cuts affecting other government posts means that, even with the transferred jobs, the government departments will still have fewer people based in the region than in 1997 when Labour came to power.

The proposed transfer of around 300 of those 1,000 jobs – from the Health and Safety Executive – currently hangs in the balance after unions pledged to fight to stop the move.

Last night, Labour MPs called on Gordon Brown – who promised to shift 20,000 jobs out of Whitehall to the regions, including 2,000 to Merseyside and Cheshire – to live up to his previous pledges.

His announcement when Chancellor followed the Lyons Review – written by Sir Michael Lyons, who is now BBC chairman – which looked at ways to reduce government costs.

He suggested the wholesale transfer of jobs to the regions, where rents are lower and labour costs can also be lower, if staff decide not to move with their job.

Now figures obtained by the LDP show that, while some jobs have come to the region, fewer than expected have done so and more jobs have been lost in the meantime.

The Department for Work and Pensions has moved 466 jobs to the region but, since 1997, the overall number of people it employs in the region has still fallen from 6,590 to 6,511.

The Department for Education and Skills, now renamed the Department for Children, Families and Schools, has moved 50 to Runcorn, but employs only 330 people in the region, down from 512 in 1997. The Cabinet Office had 40 people working in Cheshire in 1997. It claims to have relocated 37 posts to Cheshire as a result of the Lyons Review, but now only has 27 people working in Merseyside and Cheshire.

The Department for Health, which has been accused of forcing hospitals to make job cuts to save money, revealed it had not moved any jobs to the region as a result of the Lyons Review, and no longer had any staff in the area.

And the Ministry of Defence, which could only produce North West comparative figures for 1997 and 2007, showed it had around 600 fewer people based in the region. It has not moved any jobs from Whitehall to the region.

Hopes of landing up to 300 more jobs also hang in the balance after unions in London vowed to fight plans to bring Health and Safety Executive jobs from the capital to Merseyside.

The Public and Commercial Services Union fears such a move would lead to compulsory redundancies amid claims only 40% of existing staff would be prepared to move to Merseyside.

The PCS claims this will lead to a loss of ‘skilled policy staff’ and undermine the effectiveness of the HSE.

Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “While we are not against the HSE using its re- sources more efficiently, we have major concerns over the HSE’s business case behind the move.”

Another Whitehall union, Prospect, is also opposed to the move. General secretary Paul Noon added: “HSE risks losing a body of expertise as many will view redundancy as preferable to uprooting their families.”

A HSE spokesman said a final decision on staff relocation would be made in the next three months.

Liverpool Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle said: “Gordon Brown made the promises to relocate jobs to areas such as Merseyside, and he should now deliver on that promise as Prime Minis- ter. If you look at the Department for Work and Pensions for example, Liverpool was the only DWP centre to be closed in recent years, and benefits offices have also suffered job cuts, so the jobs we are said to be getting aren’t even making up for ones we have lost.

“That wasn’t what we were promised. At the moment, it is all spin, and it’s down to the Prime Minister to correct that by making the relocation of jobs to areas such as ours a priority.”

When the Daily Post first reported on the slow response by government departments to the Lyons Review last year, tourism and investment group The Mersey Partnership said it was going to push harder for more jobs to come into the region.

Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman said: “We also need to be seeing more highly-paid jobs moving out of London, and, as the Lyons Review stated, Merseyside should be a priority area.”

davidhiggerson