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Only 16 Welsh Government workers in a building erected for 450

27 Nov 2024 5 minute read
Welsh Government offices in Merthyr Tydfil

Martin Shipton

On a random day earlier this month, just 16 people were working in a Welsh Government office built to accommodate 450 civil servants as part of a strategy aimed at creating more public sector jobs outside Cardiff.

The figure was revealed in a ministerial response to a question from Tory MS Laura Anne Jones, who had been tipped off that the occupancy rate of the building in Merthyr Tydfil was “shockingly low”.

Plenary

Ms Jones raised the issue with Leader of the House Jane Hutt during a Senedd plenary session, stating: “Earlier this month, I tabled a written question to ask how many people were working in the Welsh Government building in Merthyr Tydfil on the random date of Friday, September 13 The answer was 16.

“The Welsh Government building in Merthyr Tydfil can apparently accommodate up to 450 people. I think it’s fair to assume that some of those 16 workers would have been part of the building security and maintenance crew. Could the Welsh Government therefore provide a statement on whether or not the cost of heating and cleaning Welsh Government buildings that seem to be largely empty is offering value for money for the taxpayer?”

Ms Hutt responded: “Well, we have got a big change, haven’t we, as a result of the pandemic, and different ways of working? Hybrid working and flexible working have brought great benefits to our workforce, not just, indeed, in terms of the Welsh Government workforce, but our workforce here in the Senedd, our workforce and Members’ working arrangements, but also across all sectors, public, private and third sector.

“Certainly, this is an issue for the Welsh Government and our Permanent Secretary to look at in terms of estate. It is good that in Cathays, for example, [the Welsh Government’s headquarters building in Cardiff] we now have other users of the building, and that is also the case in terms of our other government buildings in Wales, looking at the future, responding to these changes in working practice.

“I was a Senedd Member, and in government, when we made these decisions to devolve out of Cathays, that we weren’t just going to be a civil service in Cardiff and that we were going to have these offices, particularly in the Valleys communities, Heads of the Valleys, and Aberystwyth and Llandudno. So, we need to look very carefully at how we manage this in terms of the future opportunities for our workforce and for the local labour market and economies as well.”

Economic benefits

When the Merthyr Tydfil building was opened by then First Minister Rhodri Morgan in 2006, it was said to be “part of a drive to spread the economic benefits of working for the [then] Assembly across Wales”.

The three-storey building at Rhydycar was the first of three regional offices to be opened under the scheme.

Mr Morgan said the new building for 450 staff would provide a “significant boost” in public sector jobs.

“This Assembly office will help to shape a more vibrant Merthyr and Heads of the Valleys,” he said.

“It offers high quality jobs, economic benefits and much broader career paths for staff.”

He added that it would be a “magnet” for inward investment and would improve the attractiveness of the area.

At the time Mr Morgan opened it, staff had been working in the building – said to meet the highest environmental standards – for three weeks.

The civil servants working there were said to deal with issues including social justice, housing and European funding.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said at the time: “The aim of the move is to make the workings of government and civil service jobs more available to people outside Cardiff.

“So far around 60 people have been recruited locally. The rest moved with their jobs from the capital.

“Building work on other Assembly regional offices in Llandudno Junction and Aberystwyth is expected to start soon.

“The Assembly Government hopes to have 60% of its staff working outside of Cardiff by 2008.”

Irony

A Senedd insider told Nation.Cymru: “There’s some irony in the fact that the building in Merthyr was designated as the headquarters of the Welsh European Funding Office, which funded billions of pounds of EU aid for Wales from the EU. It shut down after Brexit when the EU funding dried up, of course.

“An urban myth also grew up around the building, with some suggesting that the only Merthyr people employed at the building worked as cleaners, while the bulk of the workforce travelled up the A470 from their homes in Cardiff.

“The Welsh Government has a real problem now. It’s difficult to envisage anyone wanting to take over a 450-person office block in Merthyr Tydfil in the foreseeable future.”


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Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
15 days ago

Someone made a killing…

hdavies15
hdavies15
15 days ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Back in those days when Rhodri opened the place the aim was to fill it with public servants ! Of course austerity put the brakes on that otherwise even more of our communities would be employed by the Bay regime.

Bert
Bert
15 days ago

Put it on the market and find out before deciding no-ones interested. It’s close to the station with shiny new trains and the A465 will be finished one day.

Karl
Karl
10 days ago
Reply to  Bert

Shiny new trains, seen one do far and that had a diesel module attached to run it

CommonSense
CommonSense
15 days ago

If it’s hybrid no one wants to go to the office on a Friday. Would they go in every day of the week if they had the option to work from home 40%-60% of the week?

John. 6
John. 6
15 days ago

Another copy, paste answer from the WG, while soon building the same thing in north wales that will probably remain empty when finished apart from the cleaning staff. And the taxpayers on the hook for the costs.

Evan Aled Bayton
Evan Aled Bayton
15 days ago

Plenty more examples and in local government too.

hdavies15
hdavies15
15 days ago

Instead of waffling, ducking and diving perhaps our esteemed Ministers will actually engage gears one day soon and figure out how much space they could realistically sub-let at each location. Letting at reasonable rents for a term commitment or even higher rents for short term might prove attractive to small or medium ventures or national companies looking for small local sales/service locations. Quite amazing that there is no evidence of anything done over last c.2 years despite hybrid working becoming well established.

Freya Nolton
Freya Nolton
15 days ago

It stinks

HarrisR
HarrisR
14 days ago

It’s Potemkin Wales!

We now have near empty Government buildings much like the one dimensional Potemkin villages built along the river by Prince Potemkin to impress his “special squeeze”, Catherine the Great! Only ours were located to hopefully impress the credulous natives. “Devolution is beneficial beyond Cardiff”! sic.

If we add in Gogol’s “Dead Souls” for the numbers, we have an entire feudal architecture. Just as well we’ve got a tip top Baroness in supreme charge as well. Perfect.

Matthew
Matthew
14 days ago

Austerity means there’s not enough posts to fill and hybrid working means those in post aren’t in as often as they used to be.

Best way out of this is to split the building up into several areas to maintain security, then offer the sub units to other public sector bodies so that they can close their offices and save some money from their budgets.

Could be a good hub for administrative staff for the emergency services, the local health board, or the local council among others.

Last edited 14 days ago by Matthew
Mark
Mark
13 days ago
Reply to  Matthew

Unfortunately the council, health board and emergency services already have offices so it would result in more empty buildings.

Karl
Karl
10 days ago

Bad question, why shouldn’t employment evolve. The question should be what is the future plans for the building. Not to infer lack of people based there built on outdated work methods. Shows lack of research

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