Public sector

Leeds is the regional capital and the main centre for public administration within Yorkshire and the Humber. It is home of the Government Office, the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and the regional office of the newly formed Homes&Communities Agency.

A detailed report is available setting out the advantages of Leeds as a location for government departments and agencies. Download the report.

In total, around 110,000 people work in the public sector in Leeds – almost 27% of the workforce. The largest employers in Leeds are Leeds City Council, with around 33,000 staff, and the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, with 14,000 staff.

Leeds is one of the largest locations outside London for public administration, with 19,000 employees, and the fourth largest outside London for employment in education, with 42,000 employees. The health sector in Leeds employs a total of around 43,000 people.

Leeds City Council is working with its partners in the public and private sectors to encourage the relocation of civil service posts to Leeds from London and the South East, and to ensure that Leeds has the complete solution for such relocations, including skilled people, BREEAM ‘Excellent’ properties and a package of relocation assistance.

There are a number of developments and sites, within a ten-minute walk of Leeds railway station, that offer ideal accommodation for the large office campuses proposed in the Civil Service in the Regions initiative led by the Office for Government Commerce.

These include Wellington Place, with planning consent for over 163,000 sq m of offices; Latitude Red, with the capacity for over 80,000 sq m of offices; and Whitehall Riverside, with planning consent for a total of 50,000 sq m of offices.

There are already 37,000 civil servants in Yorkshire and the Humber, 15,000 in West Yorkshire and 8,000 in Leeds.

Key civil service presences in Leeds include the Department for Work and Pensions, with 1,700 staff, and the Department of Health, with 800 staff, both located at Quarry House. HMRC has 1,270 staff in Leeds and the British Library has 1,100 staff. Several government departments, non-departmental public bodies and arms-length bodies have a major presence in Leeds, including the Legal Services Commission, the Children’s Workforce Development Council and the Office of Rail Regulation.

The Department of Health’s only headquarters building outside London is in Leeds. Its presence has encouraged the growth of a cluster of health-related public bodies in Leeds.

These include the headquarters of the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care, with 375 staff; the headquarters of NHS Connecting for Health; NHS Employers; NHS Appointments Commission; NHS Blood and Transplant Service, The Healthcare Commission; The Commission for Social Care Inspection; and Skills for Health.

The newly established Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission created 300 jobs when it set up its headquarters in Leeds in 2009. A spokesperson for the commission indicated: “The crucial factor in choosing Leeds was the high level of relevant skills in the West Yorkshire workforce, especially those in financial services.”

The Leeds Initiative is the city’s local strategic partnership. It brings together the public and private sectors, and representatives of community, voluntary and faith sectors to work together for the long-term economic, cultural and environmental development of the city.

[Last update 5/7/10]