CIVIL-SERVICE RELOCATION AND THE ENGLISH REGIONS

MARSHAJL.L N., ALDERMANN. and THWAITEAS. T. (1991) Civil service relocation and the English regions, Reg. Studies 25,499510. The paper uses case study evidence from a civil service related organization considering relocation to consider the impact on the regions of England of the recent round of civil service dispersal from London and the South East. It is based on a cost benefit analysis of the main operating costs of the unit considering relocation, at both its current London base and a number of lower cost locations in the provinces. An investigation of the likely impact of a move on the functioning of the unit relocating and the likely local property and labour market conditions it might face in selected lower cost locations are used to consider the more qualitative aspects of relocation. Decentralization of the civil service is likely to favour selected lower cost locations between the North Midlands and South Yorkshire. This suggests that the economics of relocation from the capital have stretched since the 1960s and 1970s. However, in the current recession we are sceptical about whether the pressures encouraging civil service relocation will continue to produce decentralization on the scale of the recent past. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.