IN local government size matters. The larger your population, the more cash you get to spend through the rate support grant. So for local authorities, luring new businesses to an area is essential.

It provides jobs for locals, brings new workers in and also helps retain recently qualified graduates who otherwise might move elsewhere for work. So leaks of the Gershon review suggesting up to 30,000 Whitehall jobs are to be moved out of the South East are particularly interesting.

The scramble to secure the new jobs could take on something of a game show. A sort of cross between Relocation, Relocation and I'm a Civil Servant... Get Me Out Of Here. In this case, it's the regions that are the contestants and jobs that are up for grabs as prizes.

Of course, people will focus on the usual factors: ready workforce, available housing and transport links. But I wonder if the Government shouldn't also be considering relocating the departments as a reward to areas where the public sector has proved efficient. Points could be awarded for keeping the community charge increase in single figures, NHS queues to a minimum and crime figures in check.

In this game, points mean jobs with, say, the top ten authorities getting 3,000 each.

Of course the transfer of jobs from the capital also gives the Government a chance to compare different centres and assess whether the Whitehall mandarins are really as efficient as they should be. So the Gershon review is to be welcomed, but I wonder if it has missed the biggest trick of all.

I'm wracking my brains as to a reason why the Houses of Parliament have to be based in London. MPs constantly complain about the cramped conditions of the House of Commons, not to mention London house prices and transport problems. And the flower bombing of Tony Blair this week illustrates how the Commons simply isn't designed to combat the attention seekers and worse of the modern world.

So why not start again from scratch. What a boost it would be to the North or elsewhere to have a purpose-built Parliament in their area.

Imagine all the lobbyists and TV companies that would also relocate and the pubs, shops and restaurants that would follow. Of course there would be an initial cost but this could easily be met by selling off the current Commons and other assets such as Downing Street.

I know London would survive and it would have the bonus of easing the capital's congestion problems. And what an example it would set to the civil servants currently worrying about having to uproot in order to keep their jobs.

Of course, similar arguments were advanced when the relocation of Wembley was discussed. On every single point logic suggested that a plot in the Midlands was the best option, yet the FA decided to knock down Wembley and build another stadium on exactly the same site.

The rumour was that the top brass at the FA didn't fancy driving all the way to Birmingham to watch England play. Wembley might be massively inconvenient for the fans but it was only a short hop from their Mayfair mansions.

Only when the full details of the Gershon review are released will we know whether moving the Commons was even considered.

If not, it's time it was.