Up to 60,000 civil servant posts could be moved out of London and the South East over the next few years under new plans to be announced next week.

Proposals from Sir Michael Lyons, to be announced on Monday, will confirm initial plans to move 20,000 of the 240,000 civil service jobs in London and the South East to areas such as Newcastle, Liverpool, Sheffield and Bristol over the next five years.

Meanwhile, the FT reports that the NHS Modernisation Agency is to be radically slimmed down after concluding that it had largely succeeded in spreading best practice through the health service.