£160,000 cost of WFH desks for mandarins
WHITEHALL officials are buying dozens of new desks and chairs every month so that civil servants can continue to work from home in comfort.
One Government department has agreed a £160,000 deal to provide furniture for staff who still spend just two days a week in the office – with free home delivery included.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) stated in a tender: ‘This requirement is for chairs and desks for staff working from home, in order that the department can fulfil its obligations of duty of care to its staff and their wellbeing.’ Last night John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It’s unbelievable departments are still forking out taxpayers’ cash to furnish home offices.
‘Empty Westminster offices still cost a fortune to maintain. Unused workspaces should be sold off.’
The deal will heighten concerns among MPs that the Government has abandoned its drive to get civil servants back to their desks after they grew to enjoy WFH during the Covid epidemic.
Latest figures show many ministries are still just half full. The offices used by DLUHC were 71 per cent occupied in the week beginning May 8. Home Office staff in the same building fared worse achieved just 54 per cent occupancy.
It comes after the Mail revealed Government design guides now assume only half of staff will be in offices at any one time, down from 66 per cent before the pandemic.
Documents published by DLUHC, headed by Tory Cabinet minister Michael Gove, stated it has ‘a hybrid working model’.
Although it has 3,500 staff across 23 centres, they are ‘expected to work in the office for a minimum 40 per cent of their time’.
The department envisaged the new furniture service will ‘predominately be used by new starters’. Suppliers were told they must provide 32 chairs and up to 15 desks a month. Chairs are to cost £200 and desks £175, excluding VAT. And they were told: ‘The supplier will communicate with the home worker to arrange delivery.’
Although the contract was originally set at £ 200,000, a deal of £160,403 was agreed last month with Kent firm Bates Office Services.
The Government defended the arrangement, first revealed by the Sun on Sunday. A spokesman said last night: ‘Hybrid working arrangements were in place before the pandemic and this office planning model allows us to save taxpayer money.’
‘Unused offices should be sold off’