Whitehall blob ‘to WFH for ever’ ‘to WFH for ever’
Boris again urges Britain to get back to the office ++ He declares war on refusenik civil servants who insist that they’ll continue working from home ++ Mandarins told to ‘get a damn grip’ as they claim ‘lack of desks’
BORIS JOHNSON was last night on a war footing with the Whitehall ‘blob’ over the reluctance of civil servants to return to their desks.
The Prime Minister is pushing for an end to the working from home (WFH) culture – putting him on a collision course with senior officials, who are planning to keep a large number of their staff doing so permanently, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
UK Government sources say the plan is for a 60:40 split between home and office working, with most based at home.
One insider said: ‘There are a number of civil servants who have bought nice houses in the country during lockdown and are betting that they will never, ever be forced into the office.’
But Mr Johnson’s Cabinet Office ‘enforcer’ Steve Barclay has written to Permanent Secretaries – the most senior officials in each department – telling them that the end of ‘Plan B’ Covid regulations south of the Border now means ‘every desk should be filled’.
He also ordered them to provide figures on the number of staff who have returned to Whitehall by the end of next week.
Mr Barclay said: ‘It is important that Government departments lead the way in getting people back to the office, helping our economy get back up to full speed.
‘The swift return of public servants to their workplaces will begin with immediate effect. While the Civil Service has met the challenges of the past two years admirably, we must now learn to live with Covid.’
From early next month, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will make it mandatory for all staff to be in the office – but only for three days a week.
Another major Whitehall department is making only two days a week compulsory, while a third will allow staff to work a week and a half in the office followed by two weeks from home. It is understood some departments are justifying their decision to allow large numbers to work from home because they do not have desk space for everyone.
The pressure to get civil servants back to the office in England comes as Mr Johnson hopes to ride out moves by his own MPs to topple him over the ‘Partygate’ row.
MPs and business leaders last night hit out at Whitehall’s reluctance to get back to their desks while the rest of England has to return to commuting.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative Party leader, said: ‘The signal this sends to the rest of the country is “do as we say, not as we do”. The Civil Service is in a mess because first they had “flexitime”, then they had lockdown, and now they all think they can work from home and ride their Peloton exercise bikes.
‘I don’t mind flexitime to a degree, but this is flexi-holiday.
‘They say they do not have enough desks? Well put a bloody desk in! Get a damn grip. You need to be in the office. There’s lots to do, there’s lots of urgency, get on with it. There is no leadership in the Civil Service. There used to be big beasts. Now they seem so intent on meeting [diversity] targets that they seem to promote people on the basis of what they look like, what gender they are.
‘There are some very good people in the Civil Service and they are frustrated because they don’t tick all the boxes. It has become a cosy club for nonentities.’
Luke Johnson, the entrepreneur and former Pizza Express chairman, said Whitehall’s culture of working from home had been ‘a catastrophe’.
He said: ‘How do you motivate, encourage and train people if everyone is remote? Zoom is no substitute. It’s delusional to think it is as good. If it’s other people’s money, as it always is in the public sector, do they care enough?’
UK Cabinet Ministers are set to
‘You need to be in the office. There’s lots to do’
lock horns with senior officials over the reluctance to return to office working. It is understood that Home Secretary Priti Patel would prefer an office-to-home ratio of 90:10.
As well as Cabinet Office Minister Mr Barclay, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace are also understood to be ‘in campaigning mode’ to end the working from home culture.
Some officials have bought houses in Cornwall and the Cotswolds ‘gambling’ that they won’t ever have to return to the office, an insider said.
In October, The Mail on Sunday revealed that Cabinet Ministers had argued that civil servants working from home and unable to read vital security documents had left Britons at the mercy of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
A Government source said: ‘It’s important civil servants get back to the office. There is business of government that needs to be done – and that needs to be done from
the office. The productivity rates of civil servants working from home are appalling.’
Alex Chisholm, the Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office, wrote to trade unions on Friday to tell them that ‘Ministers are expecting the return to workplaces in the Civil Service to be operationalised over the next week’.
He also called for ‘collaboration’ to ‘ensure colleagues across the Civil Service are supported and remain safe as we move forward’.