Government plans to move highly-skilled civil servants from London are more likely to succeed if jobs are relocated to host cities with existing high-quality employment, a report by the Centre for Cities think-tank has found.

The study, which assessed recent moves such as the BBC’s partial relocation to Salford’s MediaCity and the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) move to Newport, found there was a limited economic and business impact in moving high-skilled jobs to areas that have not traditionally hosted such roles – largely because the skills required to fill vacancies will not exist locally.