According to a Cabinet Office news release, the Places for Growth programme had moved 24,621 civil service roles outside London by March 2025, exceeding its 22,000 target three years ahead of schedule. The department also said more than two thirds of all new full-time civil service posts had been created in key regional locations, while four in five civil servants were based outside the capital. Ministers are presenting the figures as evidence that civil service reform and devolution are now being pursued together. The immediate policy point is that regional growth is no longer being discussed only through funding pots and local transport schemes; it now includes where the state itself recruits, houses teams and places senior officials.
Places for Growth is the government's programme for moving roles from London into hubs across the UK. In practical terms, it is meant to spread policy, operational and analytical capacity more evenly, so departments are less concentrated around Westminster and more closely connected to the places affected by national decisions. That matters because the location of officials can shape the evidence they see, the employers and councils they deal with, and the labour markets from which departments recruit. A geographically broader civil service may be better placed to understand regional economies, although that depends on whether relocated posts carry decision-making authority rather than support functions alone.
The leadership measure is the more demanding test. The Cabinet Office said 36.6% of UK-based Senior Civil Servants were located outside London as of March 2026, part of a wider ambition to place half of the senior cadre in the regions and nations. For devolution policy, this is more than a workforce statistic. When directors and other senior officials are based nearer combined authorities, devolved administrations, universities and local industry, relationships can be formed earlier and delivery problems can be addressed closer to the point of service. Departments will still need clear reporting lines, common standards and enough central capacity to prevent decision-making from becoming uneven.
Cabinet Office Minister Mark Ferguson said the aim was a 'truly UK-wide Civil Service' and argued that national decision-makers should better reflect the communities affected by their choices. Ministers have described the approach as 'devolution by design and devolution by default', signalling that the programme is not being presented as an estates exercise but as a structural change in how Whitehall operates. That distinction matters. Relocating posts can bring visible economic benefits to regional labour markets and professional networks, but the constitutional case is broader: moving influence away from a London-centred model and closer to institutions with local democratic mandates.
The next phase is the plan to post Whitehall officials into mayoral offices, announced by the Prime Minister in August. The government says high-performing civil servants will be seconded into mayoral authorities to strengthen local capability, add capacity and speed up the transfer of powers from the centre. In operational terms, secondments could give mayoral teams faster access to policy expertise and improve coordination with departments on transport, housing, skills and growth programmes. They also create straightforward accountability questions. Officials on temporary placement will remain within civil service management structures, while mayors remain directly answerable to local electorates. Clear objectives, published performance measures and well-defined reporting arrangements will be needed if the policy is to be judged on results rather than announcement value.
The article also highlights a Civil Service Fast Stream pilot in Yorkshire and Humber, intended to let young people enter public service without relocating to London. If maintained beyond the pilot stage, that approach could widen entry routes into the civil service and help departments recruit from a broader regional and social base earlier in officials' careers. The government has linked this work to No.10 North, presented as a means of bringing departments behind a shared devolution mission. Read together, the relocation of established roles, the regional recruitment pipeline and the use of secondments amount to a single administrative strategy rather than a series of separate announcements.
For policy professionals, the main point is that Places for Growth is now being used as an instrument of devolution, not only as a relocation programme. The government's case is that a more dispersed civil service will produce better policy, stronger working ties with regional institutions and a more credible model of growth outside London. Whether that case holds will depend on what moves with the posts: budget authority, senior decision-making, accountability for outcomes and enough permanence to build institutional memory. Headcount is easy to measure. A lasting transfer of state capacity is harder to deliver, and easier to judge only over time.