YORK is to be a big winner from Government plans to shift 20,000 civil service jobs out of London and the south-east, it was revealed today.

Sir Michael Lyons, who has been carrying out a review for the Treasury, said at least two separate departments had drawn up proposals to move jobs to the city.

One Government department also said it would be willing to shift posts to Harrogate, according to Sir Michael's report, Well Placed to Deliver?

He refused to be drawn on the identity of the departments or the number of jobs involved.

Sir Michael said staff had not yet been informed of the proposals, which would be completed by 2010.

He also said there was scope to increase the number of jobs being relocated by being more "radical".

But the most likely candidate for a move to York is the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Sir Michael said departments which specified alternative locations "displayed a strong preference for using their own regional sites or clustering in areas where they already had a presence".

DEFRA has science staff at the Central Science Lab in Sheriff Hutton and has admin and professional staff at King's Pool, York.

The Ministry of Defence has combined its separate security vetting functions at Imphal Barracks.

In addition, the Pensions Service, Land Registry and CPS all have offices in the city.

Of the posts being relocated, 3,100 are in the Chancellors' departments, 4,200 in Work and Pensions, 3,900 in the MoD, 2,300 in the Home Office, 1,400 in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, 1,100 in health and 800 in Education and Skills.

Last month the Evening Press revealed the city's hopes of attracting some of the jobs had been dealt a blow by property consultants King Sturge, which carried out analysis for Sir Michael Lyons.

King Sturge excluded the city, along with Harrogate, from a list of places which could benefit from the relocation.

Instead, King Sturge picked Middlesbrough, Sunderland. Stockton-on-Tees, Newcastle and North Tyneside as locations for public sector staff.

York and Harrogate were understood not to fit the criteria that relocation should be used as a tool to kick-start faltering local economies.

Despite the blow, campaigners - including York MP Hugh Bayley and york-england.com - continued to press the case for York.

And the influential Town and Country Planning Association urged the Government to target what it called a "necklace" of railway towns and cities, such as Darlington, Durham and York.

Updated: 12:22 Monday, March 15, 2004