Government blows £200k on desks & comfy chairs so new generation of civil servants can work from home
A MAJOR government department is spending £200,000 on desks and chairs so a new generation of civil servants can work from home.
The move involves the Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Community, headed by Michael Gove.
It has said it wants to provide at least 32 workers a month with a desk and chair to work at home — for up to four years.
It said the pricey furniture “will predominately be used by new starters”.
Contract details just published show the department signed a deal in the spring to buy hundreds of 1m-long desks and ergonomic work chairs.
Workers will not even have to put up the table and chairs themselves as the contract will provide for full installation.
Government paperwork said: “We expect on average 32 deliveries a month. Depending on recruitment, this could be more.”
Ironically, the supplier providing the furniture is not coming from the northern so-called Red Wall, which is a priority area for the levelling up department.
Bates Office Services Ltd is based in Rochester, Kent.
The department employs 3,500 staff in 23 offices and said staff had been provided with furniture for home working since the pandemic.
It has the highest levels of civil servants working in the office other than the MoD and Cabinet Office, latest figures reveal.