Shifted heritage body is set to bring jobs back to Capital

Published on Monday 23 November 2009 08:38

A QUANGO which was at the centre of a furore over relocating more than 200 jobs out of Edinburgh is now moving staff back into the Capital.

The transfer of Scottish Natural Heritage's headquarters from Edinburgh to Inverness was one of the most controversial in a long list of relocations ordered by the Labour-Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive under its policy of dispersing jobs to other parts of the country.

Now SNH is shutting its Dalkeith office and relocating all 17 staff to Edinburgh.

SNH said the move was designed to improve efficiency, but politicians highlighted the irony of the situation.

Edinburgh South Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Pringle said: "I don't believe it. I'm sorry Dalkeith is losing jobs, but it's good news there are jobs coming to Edinburgh.

"It shows how ridiculous the previous policy was, moving jobs at huge cost.

"SNH didn't want to move to Inverness and were forced to do it, but it is still extremely ironic that having moved all those jobs out of Edinburgh they are now bringing jobs into Edinburgh."

SNH's relocation to the Highlands was ordered by ministers in 2003 despite Inverness being ranked fifth on a shortlist of five.

There was strong opposition to the move from staff, unions, local politicians and the SNH board, and the government was warned vital knowledge and expertise in specialised areas would be lost.

Only 55 staff out of the 270 Edinburgh staff decided to make the move to Inverness. SNH put redundancy costs at 6.9 million and the total cost of the relocation was estimated at 27m.

The Dalkeith office at Laundry House in Dalkeith Country Park closed yesterday. The annual cost of running the office was 25,000.

The staff will now move into Silvan House, Corstorphine, where the 50 or so SNH staff who were kept on in Edinburgh after the move to Inverness already share the building with the Forestry Commission.

The lease on SNH's previous offices at Anderson Place, Leith, was given up at the time of the relocation and its other headquarters building at Hope Terrace, Morningside, was sold.

Iain Rennick, SNH's area manager for Forth and Borders, said:

"The building lease was due to expire, and like all public bodies we used that opportunity to look at possible cost savings. Moving to Silvan House will allow us to cut our overheads, and has the added advantage of moving us next to other SNH staff and our close colleagues in the Forestry Commission. We will, however, miss being in Dalkeith."