Permanent Secretary at the United Kingdom Cabinet Office, Alex Chisholm (pictured) says working from home could be a permanent feature of a future Public Service.
In saying this, Mr Chisholm, who heads the Public Service, appears at odds with his Prime Minister, Boris Johnson who, before the current spike in COVID-19 infections, said he wanted as many Government employees as possible back at their desks in Whitehall.
Mr Johnson had said that cafes and other businesses which relied on demand from commuters were facing ruin if this did not happen.
Efforts to get 80 per cent of Public Servants back working at least part-time in Whitehall, initiated by former Cabinet Secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill before his departure earlier this month, now appear to have been abandoned.
Mr Chisholm told MPs on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee that a positive impact of the pandemic had been to pave the way for more hybrid online working between staff in the office and those based at home.
“The shift towards more home working will allow the Civil Service to reduce its central London office space as it looks to relocate jobs across the country,” Mr Chisholm said.
“There will be fewer officials working from Whitehall, partly because we want to reduce the number working in Whitehall and the size of the Whitehall estate anyway,” he said.
Mr Chisholm said an announcement on the plan to reduce the Whitehall estate would come in the weeks ahead.
He said the intention was to consolidate and rationalise the current Public Service property portfolio into substantial new hubs, focused in cities around the country.
London 1 October 2020
