Local authorities re-examined their services at every level, brainstormed improvements and refashioned processes combining entrepreneurial flair with the expertise of departmental staff.

This eventually resulted in all ministers, with their departmental staff, being accommodated in the building over time, compounding the office space problem.

Conversely, the letters from ordinary citizens... go through a centralised mailroom and which are normally dealt with by departmental staff and rarely seen by ministers or their advisers.