Govt to pump £800m into town centres and move 3,000 Civil Service jobs out of South East

19 May 2021, 00:01

Boris Johnson is due to move 3,000 civil servant roles to Stoke, Edinburgh and Belfast and pump £830 million into the UK’s high streets.

As part of a series of announcements on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said he wants to create a "fairer society" with his "levelling up" pledge while officials said the finance will fight inequality which has been exacerbated by Covid.

Money will also be made available to invest in places with low numbers of good and outstanding schools.

But Labour has been critical about the Government's promises after criticising past Tory spending decisions.

"As the country gets back on its feet, the Government has renewed its commitment to levelling up and tackling the issues that really matter to people," the PM said.

"Making sure our children get the best possible education, transforming our town centres and correcting the regional imbalance of public sector roles - this is levelling up in action.

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"Not only will we beat the pandemic and recover from its impact, I am determined to seize the opportunity it presents to create a fairer society, improve lives and build back better once and for all."

The Government has already pledged to move 22,000 Civil Service roles out of the South East by 2030.

The 3,000 roles will be in the Home Office and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

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Satellite offices have been announced by the Treasury and Ministry of Housing, with the former setting jobs up in Darlington and the latter in Wolverhampton.

A total of 57 local areas will benefit from an £830 million town centre fund. Grimsby, which elected a Tory MP for the first time in nearly 100 years, will get money for a new cinema and market food hall, Downing Street said.

Plymouth, where the Tories became the largest party on the council, will be one of four areas to be backed by £10 million for improved education.

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Ashfield and Mansfield, South Sefton and North Liverpool, and North Durham and City will also receive funding after being singled out as boroughs where a lower than average number of pupils attending good or outstanding schools.

Labour, however, has been critical of the Government's rhetoric of levelling up.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow Chancellor, has said: "The Government talk in this Queen’s Speech about levelling up, but it is this Conservative Government who have cut 60p from every £1 of funding to local councils, forcing them to close Sure Start and children's centres, and to cut back on social care, libraries and leisure centres, degrading the very fabric of our local communities.

"The Government want the public to think that they have been in power for only a year. They have not; they have been in power for 11 years, and they need to take responsibility for their own record."