Newport ideally placed to attract Public Sector jobs from London

Following Alistair Darling’s announcement in last week’s Budget of proposals to move 15,000 civil service jobs out of London, the case has been put forward for Newport.

Over the past few years the city of Newport has become a natural new home for civil servants relocating from London. The Patent Office, the Office for National Statistics and the Prison Service have had highly successful relocations to Newport creating a significant public sector cluster. And the city is ready and able to accommodate many more.

There are a number of sound reasons for the successes of these relocations, why we can be confident that future civil service moves here could be equally successful and why Newport ought to be one of the first places to look when Whitehall mandarins scour the UK for suitable new locations for civil service offices.

One solid reason is the cost-effectiveness of making such a decision. Headline grade A office rents, at £16psf, are way below equivalents in London and compare favourably with Cardiff and Bristol, which stand at £21 and £25 respectively.

The existing civil service office HR managers attest to the quality, flexibility and skills of staff they have been able to recruit locally. Newport staff retention rates are as high as anywhere in the country with staff turnover, or attrition, among the lowest and comparing favourably with the best in the land.

The location, too, is a deciding point. Access to the M4 and main rail network is excellent. Public transport is good and the quality and cost of life available to staff is superb.

And while Newport may not have the breadth of facilities available to those in city centres such as Cardiff and Bristol, these facilities, such as retail centres, cultural and sporting locations, are not far away.

Newport recently came third in a list of the 28 best office locations in the UK in the highly-regarded Lambert Smith Hampton Office Location Index. The chart, which placed Newport on almost maximum points, listed centres on criteria of rental cost, quality of premises available, labour costs, availability of skilled workforce and the potential to recruit staff locally.

Major office expansion in Newport is possible due to its enormous labour catchment area. Newport is at the centre of the South Wales/Severnside area which, with a population of some 1.5m within 45 minutes drive of the centre of Newport, is the second largest conurbation in the UK.

The positive announcement made by the Chancellor for the relocation of 15,000 civil servants from London to other parts of the UK is potentially great news for Newport, with its unrivalled track record over the years of first attracting and then retaining civil service jobs.

Wales’ newest city now looks forward to attracting even more public sector jobs over the coming months and years.

Source: Western Mail 31st March 2010