Ministry’s workforce grows while local government shrinks
Staffing levels at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have increased 18% in the past two years, while the number of people working in local government has decreased nationally by 9% over a similar period, LGC analysis of government data reveals.
Local Government Association chair Lord Porter (Con) called the divergence “worse than double standards” as “rolling back the state obviously doesn’t mean that” for those working in Whitehall. He also questioned the value of central government’s civil servants.
“From the taxpayers’ point of view, local government staff add value to the lives of the people we work for. I would be interested to see if someone would like to say the same thing about central government staff,” said Lord Porter.
Although total staffing levels and payroll statistics at the ministry has generally trended downwards by 12% since 2012, it has witnessed a snapback in staffing levels over the last year in particular. The ministry’s latest figures, published on 27 April, show that in total 1,724 workers were working for the department in March 2018 compared with 1,462 in April 2016. This headcount only started to rise in July 2017, however