It has been announced that two key government departments are to share office space in London from 2014, which is expected to save the public purse £24m a year.
Under the plan, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will leave its present Eland House site, and move operations to the Home Office’s Marsham Street property. A total of 1,300 staff will move.
The move has come about as a result of near 1,000 job losses in the DCLG since 2010, allowing for empty space at Marsham Street to now be used. This space itself has become available since other job losses in the civil service.
Speaking about the move, Sue Higgins from the DCLG said it would save her department £8m on an annual basis:
“The department is continually looking at ways to provide greater value for money to the taxpayer. Our aim is to use our resources – people, public money and property assets – as efficiently and creatively as possible to deliver real change,”
The director general of finance and corporate services went on to say:
“Now that the department workforce is 37 per cent less, we don’t need as much space so it makes sense to find more suitable accommodation.”
Helen Kilpatrick, the director general of finance and corporate services for the Home Office was in agreement, saying that the joint managed offices would allow her department to lead civil service reform.
She was also eager to stress that the sharing of resources between the two departments would also offer many benefits.
