‘MOVE OFFICES FROM WHITEHALL

TO CARLISLE,’ SAYS JOHN

DECEMBER 11, 2009

THE MAN hoping to be Carlisle’s next MP has called on the Government to transfer one of its departments here.

John Stevenson, Carlisle’s Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate, says such a move would provide much needed jobs in Cumbria and – possibly even more importantly in these days of national financial crisis – help cut costs, and therefore taxes.

Speaking after Alistair Darling outlined the full extent of the country’s economic downturn in his Pre-Budget Statement to the House of Commons yesterday (Wednesday), John said the Chancellor had missed the opportunity to do something radical to cut the cost of government.

And that, he said, should include moving departments out of London – where the cost of office space, housing, transport and wages is so high – and move them to the provinces, where the same work could be done much more cheaply.

“There is nothing that can be done in London that can’t be done in Carlisle – at a fraction of the price,” he says. “We have the room, we have the workforce and we have the will. It’s the sensible solution.”

John says Cumbria could benefit from a major government department being transferred to Cumbria in the same way that South Wales benefited from the DVLA being moved to Swansea.

In addition to the prospect of more jobs within the department itself, he says, there would be a knock-on affect of other jobs needed to support them, which would all help to contribute to the economic stability of the area.

And, he says, if more houses were needed for people moving to staff a government department, Carlisle has space to build them – unlike in the over-populated South-East where the housing shortage is already reaching crisis levels.

“It’s really quite simple - we are looking for employment and they are looking for housing,” he says. “The answer must surely be to build houses in places, like Carlisle, where there is room for them, and move the jobs to the places that need them.”

“If the Government wants to build new houses it should not be doing so in the South-East, which is already overcrowded. It should be looking at places like Carlisle which have plenty of room for new development and which would benefit enormously from an injection of new jobs.”

ENDS