Written evidence submitted by William
Graham AM
1. The Welsh Conservatives
Group in the National Assembly for Wales have expressed united
opposition to the closure of Newport Passport Office, with eleven
of the Group's Assembly Members signing a Statement of Opinion
calling on the UK Government to reverse the proposal.
(Written Statement of Opinion -OPIN 2010 -0057 -
Tabled -11/10/10[8])
Conservative Councillors who lead Newport City Council
have unanimously joined the campaign against the closure.
2. The Passport Office closure has the potential
to cause considerable reductions in revenue for small businesses
operating in Newport City Centre. The City Centre has suffered
recently as a number of retailers have opted to leave the location
on favour of out-of-town retail parks. In October, Marks &
Spencer announced it would be moving location to the Newport Retail
Park in Spytty, Newport transferring 70 staff in early 2012. Other
major retailers to have announced plans to leave the City Centre
in 2011 include Next and Monsoon. The number of empty business
premises in Newport is above the national average, and the closure
of the Passport Office will further exacerbate the problem.
3. Following the decline in heavy industry,
the Civil Service has become Newport's biggest employer. According
to Newport City Council Figures, between 3,000 and 4,000 civil
servants work in the City[9].
In addition to the Passport Office, the National Statistics Office
(1,300 jobs), Intellectual Property Office (1,000 jobs) and HM
Prison Service (500 jobs) are major employers[10].
Having acquired a reputation for expertise in administering public
services, it may harm the City's prospects of gaining jobs from
Government departments that are earmarked for relocation to be
seen to be cutting public jobs. There is the prospect of further
job losses at the other civil service employers in the City, while
weak growth in the private sector and one of the lowest rates
of business start-ups in the UK mean that the private sector is
unlikely to be able to employ those people previously employed
in the civil service in the short to medium term. The City experienced
a net loss of 6,700 jobs in the private sector between 1998-2008[11]
despite advertising campaigns highlighting the quality of office
space available in Newport.
4. Local communities have expressed considerable
opposition to the proposed changes. The local newspaper based
in Newport, The South Wales Argus, has organised a petition against
the closure attracting 20,000 individual signatories. On Saturday
16 October 2010, over 1,000 people marched through Newport in
protest culminating in a rally in John Frost Square.
5. The proposed reduction in staffing levels
will leave Wales as the only nation of the United Kingdom not
to have a large Passport Office. Constituents have contacted
my office expressing concern that they will have to travel to
London to access a same day Passport service. My correspondents
have also highlighted the inequity of Newport suffering 250 job
losses when this figure could have been reduced if the cuts burden
had been spread more evenly between the Identity and Passport
Services' other regional offices at Liverpool, Belfast, Peterborough
and Durham.
8 November 2010
8 http://www.assemblywales.org/bus-home/bus-guide-docs-pub/bus-business-documents/bus-business-documents-state-opinion.htm?act=dis&id=199419&ds=10/2010
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9
Newport City Council: Government Relocation Service - Choose Newport
Back
10
Source: Welsh Government Back
11
Centre for Cities Outlook 2010 Report http://www.centreforcities.org/outlook10
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