North-East Development Council (Hansard, 30 April 1973)

§ 18. Mr. Radice
asked the Minister for the Civil Service what representations on Civil Service jobs he has received from the north-east development council.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Civil Service Department (Mr. Kenneth Baker)
On 9th April I received, at its request, a deputation from the North of 789 England Development Council to discuss the possibilities for more dispersal of Government work from London to the Northern Region. I assured the deputation that the case for the Northern Region would be considered as carefully as that for other regions.

§ Mr. Radice
I thank the Minister for his answer, but does he not accept that the Government have a special responsibility to disperse their own Departments to regions such as the north, in which the percentage of the work force employed in white-collar jobs is much lower than it is in other regions? Will he confirm that at least some of the 151,000 Civil Service jobs now in the London area will go to the north and other development areas?

§ Mr. Baker
We should not have set up the Hardman review if we did not believe that more jobs could be dispersed. We are looking at 86,000 jobs in central Government, not 151,000. There are, in addition, about 70,000 regional jobs in the London area. The share of the North-East and the Northern Region generally for Civil Service jobs is com mensurate. About 32,000 civil servants work in the North-East, and that is 6.6 per cent. of the total of the Civil Service, which corresponds roughly with the relationship of the population of the North-East to that of the rest of the country.

§ Dame Irene Ward
Will my hon. Friend bear in mind that it would be helpful if we had more civil servants in the North-East, since we should then be able to convey to the House of Commons the importance of our Northern Region, which sometimes seems to be over looked by the immense number of people who represent other constituencies? Civil servants are very good at helping to advertise our part of the world, and I want my hon. Friend to realise that we should welcome their help.

§ Mr. Baker
The interests of the North-East will never be overlooked so long as my hon. Friend remains a Member of Parliament. I assure her that the one city outside London which has the greatest number of civil servants is New castle, which is part of the North-East.

§ Mr. Duffy
Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the latest available figures 790 show that Yorkshire has the lowest relative proportion of civil servants and almost the lowest relative concentration of Crown properties by rateable value? Is there any good reason why the hon. Gentleman should not now help York shire to attract to its territory one major Government office?

§ Mr. Baker
Hardman has been looking into these matters. One of the difficulties is that there are conflicting claims from each part of the country.