English Partnerships to move half its workers out of London

English Partnerships plans to relocate half its 90 London staff over the next two years as part of a government programme to move up to 20,000 civil servants out of the capital.

EP chairman Margaret Ford made the announcement at the launch of the regeneration agency’s annual report last Friday.

Ford insisted the move would not result in any job losses.

“It makes sense to relocate because much of our business is outside London,” she said.

“We’ve got enough offices, so it’ll be a case of relocating people to existing offices.”

An EP spokesperson said the process of moving staff had started in March when Sir Michael Lyons completed his review, commissioned by the government, into the scope for relocating public sector activities away from the South-east.

“Already when posts are created we try to put them in the best possible place and often that’s not in London,” said the spokesperson.

The 2003/4 annual report also showed a vast improvement in performance.

It makes sense to relocate because much of our business is outside London

Margaret Ford, English Partnerships

EP’s investment development programme has risen 80% on the previous year to reach £410m.

The agency missed 13 out of 14 targets in 2002/3 (HT 8 August 2003, page 9). This year, it hit four out of its five targets: starting work on 3085 homes, of which 1066 are affordable; completing 1903 homes, of which 312 were affordable; reclaiming 378 ha of brownfield land; and exceeding a private sector investment target of £330m by £54m. It failed to meet the objective to create 280,000 m2 of retail space – its output was just 232,000 m2.

EP’s previous annual report came at the end of a difficult year during which it faced suggestions that it might even be scrapped.

But in July 2002 the government decided to expand the agency’s role to focus on housing and brownfield site development.

Regeneration experts welcomed EP’s improved performance. Nigel Smith, chair of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ regeneration panel, said the strategy of focusing on a more specific set of goals, combined with stronger leadership, boded well for the future. “Hopefully it will focus on delivering development and not get distracted by issues like design as it has done in the past.”

EP is yet to confirm the exact details for this year’s budget but said its development programme is set to expand by 30%.