City is 'owed' London civil service jobs

CIVIL Service jobs could move from London to Plymouth as part of the push to cut public spending.

The idea was being considered as part of a drive to halve the country's massive budget deficit, Stephen Timms, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said during a visit to Plymouth yesterday.

Sutton MP Linda Gilroy, and her Devonport colleague Alison Seabeck, said they were lobbying the Government to have high-paid Civil Service jobs transferred to Plymouth.

With 36,000 public-sector jobs, the city faces an employment crisis if there is any move to cut public spending.

In the wake of the Government's decision earlier this year to locate the new Marine Management Organisation on Tyneside instead of in Plymouth, Mrs Gilroy told Mr Timms: "You owe us one."

Mr Timms refused to be drawn on which departments might move out of London, but said: "Relocating people out of central parts of the UK might be a sensible way of cutting the deficit. Plymouth is important in that."

The Minister visited the Cargo development at Millbay and the new Evolve site in Ker Street, Devonport, to see the impact of Government funding for new housing. A £3.9million grant, delivered by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), has helped to get work under way on 201 new homes at the two sites.

Cargo has 134 apartments and town houses. Work is now under way on infrastructure to pave the way for future phases of development, thanks to a £4.5million investment from the HCA.

"This Kickstart funding is the little extra impetus the Government can give, and it's proving very useful," said Stuart Palmer, the city council's assistant director for strategic housing.

"It's a sharing of risk between the public and private sectors."

"We have had a tough year, and the Government has been concentrating on supporting families and businesses," Mr Timms said. "Now we are moving towards growth around the turn of the year. It's good to see evidence like these housing schemes of the effectiveness of the measures we have been taking.

"Developments like this are an impressive use of Government money."

A HomeBuy Direct loan is helping Tomasz Olczyk, a Pole who works at the Fine Tubes factory in Plymouth, to buy one of 10 £144,950 townhouses reaching completion in the Evolve development in Kerr Street.

"I looked at other houses but, for the price, this one was best," he said.

The loan allows Mr Olczyk to buy a house for up to 30 per cent less than the asking price. The money must be repaid to the Government within 10 years.

The recession began when the house price bubble burst in Britain and the United States. Mr Timms rejected claims that his Government was focusing only on controlling retail prices. He said the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee considered all factors, including house prices, when they set interest rates and increased the money supply.

He said that 'sudden and draconian' public spending cuts, called for by the Tories, 'would be catastrophic.'