Relocating from London to the North East

Here is a great blog, by Matthew Coakley, describing how he has fallen in love with Geordie-land following his transfer to the Treasury’s Darlington Economic Campus (DEC).

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When Darlington was announced as the new location for the Economic Campus, my partner Emily and I briefly considered it, but quickly decided no. Too far from our families (Midlands), too far from our friends in London, too far for Emily’s job (in communications). But we hadn’t decided where next for us either. Spending £500,000 on a two-bed flat just inside the M25 wasn’t an attractive prospect, neither was moving to a commuter town and spending oodles of cash and time on trains into London.

But then we visited Emily’s brother at university in Newcastle upon Tyne over Easter in 2022. It was a misleadingly warm and sunny weekend, and we fell in love with the city centre, which is beautiful, and the Ouseburn, which provides a quintessential post-industrial area with bakeries and breweries. We loved Tynemouth too, which is a thriving coastal town with an eclectic mix of Georgian and Victorian architecture, independent eateries and shops.

Walking next to the Tyne after a locally brewed ice-cold beer got to me: “We could move here, you know. I could move my role to Darlington.” Emily had been considering a new role for a while and decided to hunt for one up here. Relocating would also mean that we could cut our rent by more than half and get a spare room in the process was just a bonus at this point. We shook on it on the train home the next day. A few months later, she’d found a new job with Siemens.

Thanks to HM Treasury’s support with costs, we moved at the beginning of 2023. I was happy to quickly confirm three things:

• people in Newcastle are friendly

• they really do wear little-to-nothing on a wintery night out

• they love Greggs

Geordies have an incredible sense of identity. I was also very happy to discover the food scene here is exciting, and you don’t need to book months in advance. We met new friends quickly.

Six months in, I still feel like a tourist, there is just so much to do. Friday nights we can get the Metro to Tynemouth for a BBQ on the beach. Less than an hour’s drive takes us to the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Hadrian’s Wall, the North York Moors or the Pennines. Loads of majestic castles and Roman ruins too (most of which are free for Civil Service Sports Council members!). Or we can go into the city centre and enjoy the pubs that open until 2am. It is no wonder we have had a steady stream of visitors. Although Emily took a pay cut and we now have a car, we think the finances are in a good place given rent is that much cheaper. We are hoping to buy somewhere in a nice part of town soon, like Gosforth.

I’m enjoying being a member of the Darlington Economic Campus (DEC). Even though I have been at HM Treasury for six years, being at the DEC feels different. It’s establishing an exciting culture, there is an appetite to experiment, to do things differently and to make the most of this unique set up. In turn, it is fostering a collaborative culture across nine departments. And there is air conditioning in the office!

Now we are settling into life in the north-east, the challenges are making themselves clear. It is colder up here, and we are far from our families. My commute is an hour’s drive or a £20 train, which feels manageable with hybrid working but I do miss cycling. Emily travels to events for work and the trains just aren’t reliable unless you’re going to London. Arriving home at 2am following an 8-hour train journey means she is now reconsidering meetings and conference invites with long travel commitments. It took us seven and a half hours to drive home from Birmingham after the A1 closed twice due to collisions.  

It doesn’t take long for this place to make you forgive it for the journey though. When we arrived for a dinner reservation at Riley’s Fish Shack after that marathon drive, we found a silent disco on the beach. Dancing with your shoes off in the sand to Groove Armada really lifts the soul. And then, when our souls needed a soft landing the next day, Embleton Bay welcomed us, Dunstanburgh Castle in full view, a smoked kipper stottie, a snooze, and a swim in the sea. It is beginning to feel like home. 

Comment

As an ex-pat Geordie myself, I was delighted to read about Matthew’s discovery of Newcastle and the wider North-East. I was also pleased to see this small step towards moving policy work out of London. Will it be the first of many such steps?

Darlington was perhaps not the most obvious destination for a branch of the Treasury but it has a number of advantages including the political advantage associated with investing in this ‘Red Wall’ seat. It is close to some magnificent countryside and has better transport links than many other northern towns. Matthew Coakley is himself taking advantage of this connectivity, choosing to live some 30 miles away in Newcastle which, like York (50 miles) and Leeds (60 miles), is undoubtedly a more interesting place to live - and offers job opportunities for partners. It helps, too, that DEC is very close to Darlington station.

But DEC’s arrival does seem to be making Darlington a more attractive place to live and work. The Financial Times reported (8 August) that “house prices have shot up; landlords have been converting properties into short-term lets; and national law and accountancy firms are jostling for scarce office space”.

Will DEC be successful in the longer term? Much will depend upon the commitment of Treasury Ministers and senior officials. Interesting experiments such as DEC can gain from the Hawthorne Effect which will inevitably dissipate as the years go buy. But it’s looking good so far.

Will there be improved policy making, as a result of …

a) “allowing talented people who cannot or do not want to live or work in London to contribute more effectively to the civil service and diversify its thinking and helping to change the way policy is made by exposing policy makers to different realities across the country and breaking down Whitehall siloes”, and …

b) having half the Senior Civil Service working outside London by 2030?

Well, only up to a point. First, most policy-making will remain in London. Around 30% the Senior Civil Service already work outside London, but mainly in delivery functions such as HMRC and DWP. Transferring another 20% of posts out of London will still leave most policy-making in and around Whitehall.

And there is a good reason for this. Despite the efficiency of Zoom, Teams and working from home, policy makers will miss too many tricks if they don’t have lots of face to face contact with Ministers and other policy officials. It is very difficult make serendipitous connections and to express slight doubts and niggling concerns when competing for attention over an internet connection - and this is a particular problem for those of us who are less confident or more introverted.

Minor management issues can also easily become misunderstood and magnified if handled via email or Zoom.

Second, I expect that most careers will continue to be either wholly in London or wholly outside London. Only 20% of DEC staff have, like Matthew, relocated from London. The remaining 80% have been recruited from the north of England. I would not expect this percentage to change very dramatically.

It would not be realistic to expect most London-based policy staff to be willing to rotate through Darlington. They would be reluctant to move 250 miles away from their existing friends and family, they would worry about becoming less visible to Ministers and senior staff, their partners may find it difficult to find a new job, they may not want to disrupt their children’s education, and they might not wish to risk leaving the London house market. They may also share the IfG’s Alex Thomas’ concern that “The energy around the campus would degrade very quickly if you had a Chancellor who insisted on in-person meetings, because the whole thing would flip. It is fragile”.

At the same time, the 80% of DEC staff who have been recruited in the North are unlikely to want to spend a significant part of their career in London. They already have good jobs in the North East, they couldn’t afford London house prices, their partners and children may not want to move, and many of them wouldn’t want to move away from friends and family.

In short, therefore, I do hope and expect that the Darlington Campus will thrive, but I doubt it will be a game changer when it comes to the efficiency or quality of policy-making across Government.

Notes

I am very grateful to Matthew Coakley for allowing me to republish his Policy Profession blog.

If you want to read more, I recommend a recent Parliamentary Select Committee report on Places for Growth and related policies. The Institute for Government has also discussed the Campus. The video etc. are here.

Martin Stanley - Editor - Understanding the Civil Service