The Whitehall WFH sell-off: Jacob Rees-Mogg plans to sell £1.5BN worth of government offices as civil servants refuse to stop working-from-home
- Jacob Rees-Mogg reveals new plan to sell off £1.5billion of London offices
- Minister for government efficiency says the buildings have been ‘under-utilised’
- Properties will be sold over next three years and staff will work in fewer buildings
Jacob Rees-Mogg is planning to sell off £1.5billion worth of government offices in London, while he continues to try and bring civil servants back into the office.
The minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency has repeatedly urged civil servants to stop working from home after Covid restrictions were scrapped.
But now Mr Rees-Mogg has said he will publish a plan that includes selling property assets as part of an effort to realise £2billion in savings from property sales and efficiencies.
The strategy will sell off the properties over the next three years and will have staff working in fewer buildings as part of a new network of government ‘hubs’, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
He told the paper that taxpayers should not have to ‘fork out for half-empty buildings’ in the capital that have been ‘under-utilised’.
Jacob Ress-Mogg has announced a plan to sell £1.5billion of Government offices in part of a plan to save £2billion
The minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency previously left this note for civil servants who weren’t at their desks
Mr Rees-Mogg said: ‘But moving civil servants to our beautiful counties and towns through the Places for Growth programme will benefit everyone, giving civil servants a better quality of life and helping economic growth outside the capital.
‘We are cutting the cost of the public estate so that we can return money to the taxpayer. All spending on government property needs to be justified.’
The MP for North East Somerset added that moving civil service jobs out of London would ‘allow greater savings and mean the government is closer to the communities it serves’.
In April, it emerged that Rees-Mogg wrote to cabinet ministers urging them to return to the office and left notes in Whitehall workspaces.
The note left behind said: ‘I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon.’
Jacob Rees-Mogg revealed his controversial notes were prompted by his shock after discovering the Cabinet Office abandoned at 11am on a weekday
The Conservative MP for North East Somerset said moving civil service jobs out of London would ‘allow greater savings’
The minister also condemned the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) after staff told bosses at the regulator that two days a week in the office is the most they can cope with.
‘The FCA has an important job and any sensible person would recognise that spending only two days a week in the office will harm performance,’ he told the Telegraph. ‘We know that people work better when they are together.’
He previously vowed to crack down on ‘flexitime’ working arrangements allowing civil servants to work around five hours less than the national weekly average, often remotely and with full-time pay.
Commenting on Rees-Mogg’s efficiency campaign at the time, the general secretary of the FDA union, Dave Penman, representing senior civil servants, said that the private sector had ’embraced hybrid working, recognising the efficiencies it delivers and competitive edge it gives to employers in a tight labour market’.
‘Meanwhile, the luddites in Cabinet insist on micro-managing the Civil Service, which will only deter good people from joining while simultaneously demotivating those already there.’
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