Relocation debate still alive, says Lyons
Former BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons, who led a review into the relocation of government ministries from London to the provinces, says he doesn’t believe the issue is dead in the water. Lyons was speaking at an event attended by Insider in Birmingham.
Lyons, who used to be chief executive of Birmingham City Council, chaired the review into the future role, function and funding of local government in 2007. It was widely interpreted as a blueprint for 20,000 public sector jobs to be relocated from the capital and for government departments to be more evenly distributed around the country.
The review was published during the rule of the last Labour government and there has been a commercial property slump in the meantime but responding to a question from Insider at a Birmingham Press Club function yesterday, Lyons said there is still a discussion to be had on the subject.
"I don’t think it is (dead in the water)," he said.
"It was always a more complex debate than was presented. I said it shouldn’t just be an episodic thing but part of a more through discussion about government deployment across the country.
"The argument is that you shouldn't do anything in London that could be done elsewhere.
"But it will get caught up in the future in the debate about the regions and the South East."
Lyons was also asked whether Birmingham could have done more to have pushed its case when the decision was taken to relocate a number of BBC programmes and functions from London to Manchester.
"Manchester often wins because the real estate picture is better than Birmingham. There were sites in Salford that offered something Birmingham couldn’t compete with," he said.
"Maybe Birmingham should have put more energy into the challenge."
