Opposition is pretty grim – and five years of it does not make it any easier. Our senior parliamentary representatives have to spend their days responding to other people’s ideas and doing their best to mitigate the worst of Tory proposals. Sometimes a timely and effective parliamentary campaign can slow down the worst impact of government policy – the tax credit work by Labour peers is a good example. But most of the time there is little room for any creativity or for initiating new ideas.

That is why I welcome the ten-minute rule bill introduced by Ian Austin today. His proposal is for a massive shift of civil servants and government machinery out of London to boost regional economies and to support better joint working.

George Osborne has undoubtedly stolen a march over Labour with his focus on devolution. Labour local government has side-lined the more sceptical national Labour leadership in looking for new ways to gain control over previously centralised resources. Across the country largely Labour-led local authorities are working in their regions to release the energy and innovation which the devolution deals can drive. However, as Ian points out, this devolution has not all been real.

The proportion of the country’s civil servants located in the capital actually increased between 2010 and 2013 so that by 2014 the 74,000 civil servants and 63,000 staff from non-departmental public bodies based in London occupied almost 30 million square feet of office space – equivalent to 246 London Shards.

Moving at least some of these jobs out of London frees up office accommodation for other businesses or even for the homes desperately needed in the capital. And the impact of the jobs in relatively under-developed cities and regions across the country provides a boost for them and a multiplier effect for the local economy. Both Ian and I are biased, but does it not make more sense to have the business department in the manufacturing heartland of the country in the Black Country – and the department for transport in the centre of the country and the transport hub of Birmingham. Manchester could presumably make the case that a department focused on sport, culture and media would find plenty to work with in the north-west. Salford is home to the BBC and there are a couple of decent football teams!

But this is not just about the economic benefits. There is little about effective policy development or implementation which requires civil servants to be in London. Seeing the rest of the country and finding new ways to work with local as well as national agencies is far more likely to lead to innovative policy and effective delivery. Most civil servants never have to brief ministers – and in the era of email and video conferencing that briefing does not require people to be in the same city anyway. For those left in London, imagine putting the senior officials and ministers much closer together – even in one building. However hard people try to break down the silos of government, being in the same building, meeting in the corridor, popping into each other’s offices is much more likely to lead to new ways of working and ideas.

So this is an interesting idea from Ian. Frustratingly, it is the type of innovative thinking you can do in opposition – perhaps we could have done more to deliver it in government. However, let’s hope that this government really want to make devolution and balanced growth a reality and will take up Ian’s plans.

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Jacqui Smith is a former home secretary, writes the Monday Politics column for Progress, and tweets @Jacqui_Smith1

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Photo: Stephen Douglas