YORK was today set for a major economic boost, with the announcement of more than 100 new civil service jobs.

The jobs are to be relocated to York from London as part of a drive to redistribute Government employees from south east England around the country.

In total, 110 jobs in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will be relocated to King's Pool, at Peasholme Green, with workers due to start in spring 2006.

The news will come as a welcome boost to the city, following the loss last year of 300 civil service jobs at York Pensions Centre in Monk's Cross. Defra is set to begin a staff survey in London to see how many staff are willing to relocate to York. Where staff members do not want to relocate, the vacancies will be filled by people in York.

The 110 posts will be in Defra's property, human resources and finance divisions. The relocation has been supported by Yorkshire Forward and york-england.com, the inward investment agency for York and North Yorkshire.

Chief executive Imelda Havers said: "We are absolutely delighted that Defra has chosen York for this important move, and that they are committed to gradually relocating more and more of their posts to this area."

The move has been coordinated by Michael Watkins, head of estates division at Defra. He said: "We have been given excellent support and advice in making this decision from york-england.com and their associate teams.

"We are looking forward to developing our teams to provide a shared corporate service to meet Defra's current and future business needs, and this will be centred from our facility at King's Pool.

"York's quality of life and working conditions made the city a natural choice."

City politicians also welcomed today's announcement. Steve Galloway, leader of City of York Council said: "Defra is already a significant employer in the city and its decision to relocate its key teams from the south east to York indicates that it is obviously very happy with the quality of the business and cultural environment its current York-based employees enjoy."

The programme to redistribute 20,000 civil servants around the country was announced by the Government in 2004, following the Lyons Review. This is the first relocation of jobs to Yorkshire and the Humber.

Defra is the second government department to announce this year it intends to bring jobs to York.

In January, the Evening Press revealed how the Pensions Service planned to bring the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) - the Government body established to help people whose pensiogn schemes have collapsed - to the city.

Updated: 10:27 Wednesday, May 11, 2005