S4C HQ

I hadn't realised it was moving out of Cardiff. Will any talented young individuals there really move out of a dynamic capital to set up in Carmarthen? The BBC lost key talent when it moved the sport department to MANCHESTER!

I think that it's good that an organisation like this is moving out of Cardiff. It would be nice to see others, such as government depts doing the same and spreading decision making and helping to create better jobs, which could benefit the Welsh language.

I think it's natural that there will be a concentration of talent in key cities around the UK. I see the benefit in locating say call centres in places where there are few jobs but creative industry types don't want to move to the middle of nowhere.

I hadn't realised it was moving out of Cardiff. Will any talented young individuals there really move out of a dynamic capital to set up in Carmarthen? The BBC lost key talent when it moved the sport department to MANCHESTER!

I think that it's good that an organisation like this is moving out of Cardiff. It would be nice to see others, such as government depts doing the same and spreading decision making and helping to create better jobs, which could benefit the Welsh language.

I think you've vastly overestimated the S4C of today in that analysis. We're talking about 50-60 employees, the vast amount I would guess to be admin, maybe sales roles too.

I think executive agencies working on defined tasks at an arms length from government - things like the DVLA, passport office, patent office - and departmental stuff undertaking what one might deem 'back office' functions (such as processing benefit claims for DWP, or legal aid applications for MoJ) can quite easily be based in the regions - although if we're talking a few thousand staff that still has to be somewhere fairly densely populated (hence places like Swansea, rather than somewhere like Machynlleth). But it has to be done on a case-by-case basis examining the effects of a move on staff and skill retention. The move of the ONS to Newport is a bit of a case-in-point. It undoubtedly saved money. It brought good jobs and spending power to a relatively deprived area of the UK (albeit a relative affluent area of Wales). But quite a few staff did not move and in an area where skills are limited its been hard to replace them. Users of ONS products will be able to tell you how some saw a decline in standards, and how "institutional knowledge" was lost about historic data or analyses, for instance.

For "policy" and "research" people in ministerial departments I don't think its appropriate to move people about. These are the people who need to communicate most with each other and Ministers on complex ideas in constant development. They need to be with each other and near to Ministers to do this -video conferencing and remote working is still no substitute for face to face interaction. So the WG's main offices and the bulk of its staff have to remain in Cardiff. Indeed, I think theres a case for bringing some stuff back to Cardiff (Welsh European Funding Office, for instance).

I think executive agencies working on defined tasks at an arms length from government - things like the DVLA, passport office, patent office - and departmental stuff undertaking what one might deem 'back office' functions (such as processing benefit claims for DWP, or legal aid applications for MoJ) can quite easily be based in the regions - although if we're talking a few thousand staff that still has to be somewhere fairly densely populated (hence places like Swansea, rather than somewhere like Machynlleth). But it has to be done on a case-by-case basis examining the effects of a move on staff and skill retention. The move of the ONS to Newport is a bit of a case-in-point. It undoubtedly saved money. It brought good jobs and spending power to a relatively deprived area of the UK (albeit a relative affluent area of Wales). But quite a few staff did not move and in an area where skills are limited its been hard to replace them. Users of ONS products will be able to tell you how some saw a decline in standards, and how "institutional knowledge" was lost about historic data or analyses, for instance.

Isn't that more to do with the loss of continuity though? It's not the case that one area has inherently a better density of skills to that extent, especially London, which due to its lower level of unemployment, it is surely the opposite case. A level of expertise has simply been built up in one locale, so uprooting is bound to cause disruption until the skills and expertise are once again developed. Labour skills can't be switched on and off like a tap.

I can only assume that the reason that HMRC is centralising its office bases is to save money. Better to have everyone in a major regional office e.g Cardiff than dotted about the place. However one of the things highlighted by Brexit was how it was regional centres that seem to be thriving but the wider areas that are being laid to waste. In hindsight the ONS move to Newport does seem strange (though we can hardly complain!). Sorry to say that it's yet more evidence of how the new labour approach didn't work - rely on the City/finance and offer public sector jobs to the depressed regions otherwise left behind.

I think executive agencies working on defined tasks at an arms length from government - things like the DVLA, passport office, patent office - and departmental stuff undertaking what one might deem 'back office' functions (such as processing benefit claims for DWP, or legal aid applications for MoJ) can quite easily be based in the regions - although if we're talking a few thousand staff that still has to be somewhere fairly densely populated (hence places like Swansea, rather than somewhere like Machynlleth). But it has to be done on a case-by-case basis examining the effects of a move on staff and skill retention. The move of the ONS to Newport is a bit of a case-in-point. It undoubtedly saved money. It brought good jobs and spending power to a relatively deprived area of the UK (albeit a relative affluent area of Wales). But quite a few staff did not move and in an area where skills are limited its been hard to replace them. Users of ONS products will be able to tell you how some saw a decline in standards, and how "institutional knowledge" was lost about historic data or analyses, for instance.

Isn't that more to do with the loss of continuity though? It's not the case that one area has inherently a better density of skills to that extent, especially London, which due to its lower level of unemployment, it is surely the opposite case. A level of expertise has simply been built up in one locale, so uprooting is bound to cause disruption until the skills and expertise are once again developed. Labour skills can't be switched on and off like a tap.

There is a loss of continuity for sure. But there is also just the general issue of potential supply of skills in an area. This is because most skills are not completely specific to one job or one employer. And London has much higher supply of most skills because of its population size and the concentration of other highly skilled sectors in the capital. Its easier to find a mix of quantitiatively-minded people from junior level to senior level drawing on other government departments, Bank of England, the private sector, universitites. And it is much easier to attract new people to London given the annual flow of graduates to the city, and the willingness of international people in particular to relocate to London.

Incidentally London has higher measured unemployment than Wales. Over 6%, compared to 4.3% according to the ILO measure (actively seeking work).

Intersting statistics.

However, totally anecdotal, but I notice that whenever colleagues have left South Wales for jobs in The South East, it's always for a far senior position either immediately or within a small space of time. And when people move the opposite direction, it's often with a drop in status. When I used to be a hardware electronics enginer, and our workplace closed down, I was offered a chance to do a similar job in Essex, with the same company, but it was for a band increase. I didn't take it as I thought it wasn't worth the hassle of relocating, and the overall quality of life was better here. That sort of thing I've seen time and time again, which leads me to question thr perceived wisdom that there at e more skills available in the South East. I really think there are more skills available in the provinces and The South East, if anything, has difficulty filling vacancies with staff at the required level of skills.

Well we know that there are far more high skilled vacancies in the south east. Is it not possible that you end up with a situation where most people in the provinces are relatively under-employed and a fair number in the south east are over-employed. Aberdeen is a little different to London but there are lots of high skilled roles there. My brother claims you've got lots of people there in senior positions that would probably struggle to get similar quality jobs elsewhere.