Government outlines plans for GONW abolition
The coalition government has confirmed that it intends to abolish the Government Office for the North West (GONW) along with seven other regional offices in the UK.
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) first set out proposals to reform the offices in its Draft Structural Reform Plan published earlier this month. The eight offices coordinate activity between local authorities and central government. The closure of the London office had previously been announced.
“We should be clear: the Government Offices are not voices of the region in Whitehall,” said Eric Pickles, secretary of state for the DCLG. “They have become agents of Whitehall to intervene and interfere in localities, and are a fundamental part of the ‘command and control’ apparatus of England’s over-centralised state.”
He added: “I believe that the original intentions behind the establishment of the Government Offices for the regions have been lost. Such functions are no longer necessary in an internet age and given the coalition government's commitment to genuine decentralisation and devolution of power.”
The DCLG said it would work with government departments, trade unions and others to lead agree arrangements for “the transfer of a small number of ongoing functions and redeployment of staff”. It added that it would look to avoid compulsory redundancies.The GONW has two offices in the region in Manchester and Liverpool.
