New Home Office HQ too small for civil servants

The Home Office's new £311m headquarters is likely to leave up to 2000 civil servants without a desk because of a surge in the number of workers, the public spending watchdog revealed last night.

When the department began looking for a new headquarters five years ago, it predicted its workforce would fall from 3,200 to about 2,900 and reached agreement with the contractors, Anne's Gate Properties, that the building could house 3,450 staff, with Westminster City Council blocking any further expansion.

In fact, the number of civil servants in the Home Office and Prison Service has risen to about 4,900 and on current trends could reach almost 5,500 by 2005, when the building is due to open. The Home Office said that was because of the growing workload faced by the department.

The National Audit Office (NAO) is calling on the Home Office to reach rapid decisions on the fate of excess staff to reassure them over their future.

The NAO highlights communications problems that meant the Home Office's human resources department forecast increased staff numbers long before the team planning the new building was aware of them.

Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said: "Risks to the accommodation strategy ... must be managed well. I urge the Home Office to decide how excess staff will be accommodated soon in order to determine the budgetary implications."

Edward Leigh, the chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: "Staff numbers today are almost twice as high as was predicted four years ago. This is poor planning based on a false assumption."

The current headquarters in Queen Anne's Gate will be refurbished at a cost of about £100m in 2005 and then the Department for Constitutional Affairs will move in.