Hundreds fewer civil servants based in Peterborough compared to five years ago despite UK rise

The Government has pledged to move more of its bureaucrats away from the capital to help “level up” the country and bring those who help run it closer to the communities they serve.

But new data shows the workforce has grown more rapidly in London than anywhere else across the UK, with the Institute for Government saying influential senior officials have historically been the most difficult to move further afield.

Government department offices based in the city include the passport office, Jobcentre Plus and the regional branches of Natural England and the Environment Agency. But Cabinet Office figures show there were around 1,740 civil servants in Peterborough at the end of March – a decrease of 200, or 10.3 per cent, from five years ago. Possibly due to years of austerity cuts under the Tory government

That is despite the civil service swelling by 3.9 per cent across the UK over the period, to 456,400 workers.

Across the East of England, the government workforce shrank by 11.2 per cent – the largest drop of any English region.

London saw a growth rate of 16 per cent, with its civil servant headcount now making up around a fifth of the UK total.

The figures include civil servants working for government departments, agencies, and non-departmental public bodies in both the UK and regional governments, where they help to develop and implement policies.

Last year it was announced the £120 million revamp of the city’s South Bank would see staff from five government agencies move in to a new building where Aqua House used to be situated from 2021.

The Cabinet Office said the move will help regenerate the city centre and could lead to more government jobs being created here in the future.

It was also revealed the Passport Office was being relocated to the site near Peterborough United’s London Road stadium.

In March, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak pledged to relocate 22,000 civil servants from London by 2030.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove recently said that moving government decision-making away from the capital would help “reflect the full diversity of our United Kingdom”.

The Institute for Government says there are some signs dominance is beginning to shift away from the city, with the biggest growth in civil service employment seen in the South West of England in the last year.

But Sarah Nickson, a researcher at the group, said higher-ranking officials – who tend to be more concentrated in London – have been harder to budge in the past.

She added: “Senior policy jobs are the kind that are needed to shift the dial on decision-making.

“And even once jobs have been relocated, you need a sustained effort to keep them there, and stop them shifting back to London.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Decision makers should be close to the people they serve and we want to see opportunity fairly distributed across the country.

“These statistics show there are now more civil servants than last year in Scotland, Wales, the Midlands, the South West, the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside.

“But we are not complacent and will continue our work to make sure the civil service represents the whole of the UK, which is why we’ve committed to relocating civil service roles out of central London.”