The government’s new glossy careers site for the Darlington Economic campus is advertising new jobs for wannabe civil servants in the: Treasury, Department of Transport, Department for Education, Department for Levelling Up, BEIS and the ONS. These jobs, that come as part of the government’s levelling up drive, offer plush benefits to prospective candidates including opportunities for “hybrid working patterns” that enables employees to split their time “between office and home”.

This comes just four days after it was reported in The Times that Cabinet Secretary Simon Case told Whitehall departments to get as many staff back to their desks as possible. This follows months of reported delays in processing applications, VAT repayments and state pension payouts, which has been blamed on home working policies. However Guido questions how ministers can demand civil servants return to their desks when flexible working is written into their contracts?