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Jobcentre Plus: Buildings

Answer

The administration of Jobcentre Plus is the responsibility of the chief executive, Darra Singh. I have asked him to provide the right hon. Member with the information requested.Letter from Darra Singh:"The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions asking how many jobcentres have undergone estates works to enable them to meet demand for their services in the last 12 months and at what cost; how many Jobcentre Plus offices estate works are planned to enable them to meet demand and what the total estimated cost is of all such works; which Jobcentre Plus offices which closed in each of the last six years have been re-opened, when each was reopened and what the cost was of (a) closing and (b) re-opening each; and which Jobcentre Plus offices which closed in each of the last six years are under consideration for re-opening and what estimate has been made of the cost of (a) the closure and (b) re-opening of each. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.""In order to ensure that Jobcentre Plus was capable of meeting the challenge of rising caseload volumes as a result of the current economic climate, Customer Service Directors undertook a review of existing services delivery arrangements in each District. This review also took account of planned welfare reform changes for the next two to three years, and the latest known information on the expected increase in business and customer volumes.""This exercise identified a requirement for work in 429 locations to increase capacity for dealing with the higher volumes of customers and to accommodate additional staff. The extent of this work varied from location to location, and we developed a range of solutions to meet additional capacity requirements. We have embarked on a programme of converting or extending our existing buildings where necessary and in the vast majority of sites affected there is sufficient internal space to enable capacity increases by converting under-utilised general office space. In sites where increased capacity is required, the work carried out is reversible and of a temporary nature. Estate modification works have so far been completed in 392 buildings to support meeting the challenge of prevailing economic conditions. The final cost of modification works at these sites is not yet known and will be published in due course.""In order to make our services more accessible to customers we are providing a range of support through outreach, often delivering advisory and other support on partners' premises. We are supplementing these measures by operating extended opening hours in some locations where the need for this is identified locally. This includes some offices opening to the public on Saturday.""We only acquire new temporary space where all other measures are insufficient and Jobcentre Plus presence in these buildings will be clearly badged as temporary facilities. Jobcentre Plus have considered re-opening four offices, which were previously open to the public but have been closed in the last six years, for temporary re-occupation. These sites are detailed at Annex A.""These offices in Annex A were previously closed as part of the Jobcentre Plus modernisation programme. In 2002 Jobcentre Plus inherited around 1,500 offices from the merger of the former Benefits Agency and Employment service. At the time of merger the two organisations had many offices which were geographically close to each other, often in the same street. The modernisation programme has modernised our Jobcentre network to improve customer service, rationalising our estate to provide excellent high street coverage and a single, integrated customer facing office, at the same time reducing cost to the taxpayer. We remain the largest office network in Government with 741 modern Jobcentres supported by 31 modern, industry standard contact centres and 79 main benefit processing centres.""The four offices listed in Annex A have now re-opened and are delivering an appointment-only based service to customers. No further offices which have been closed in the last six years are currently under consideration for re-opening. The original lease exit costs of closing the offices are also included in Annex A. The cost of re-occupation is yet to be finalised.""The Jobcentre Plus estate remains under constant review, taking into account prevailing economic conditions and changes in our service delivery planning. The work recently carried out on our buildings, to meet the challenge of increased business and customer volumes, is of a temporary nature. This ensures we retain the ability to cope with the ever changing demands on Jobcentre Plus, without unnecessarily burdening ourselves with permanent, costly estate which we will not need after the economy has recovered.""I hope this information is helpful."Annex A

Jobcentre Plus considered re-opening four offices, which were previously open to the public but have been closed in the last six years, for temporary re-occupation
Region	Location	Cost of closure (£)	Now re-opened to the public?
West Midlands	South Northfield, Birmingham	336,183	Yes, re-opened for appointment only service from 23 November 2009
London	Broadway, Bexleyheath	757,909	Yes, re-opened for appointment only service from 8 March 2010
North West	Great Moor Street, Bolton	¹—	Yes, re-opened for appointment only service from 30 November 2009
West Midlands	Erdington, Birmingham	¹—	Yes, re-opened for appointment only service from 7 December 2009
¹ Not known.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

507 c507-9W; 304401

Session

2009-10

Related items

Written Questions: Government Responses
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Written questions
House of Commons

Subjects

Jobcentres Jobcentre Plus

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk