Ms Glen recently wrote to the Executive advocating Dundee as the best place to re-locate Scottish Executive-funded bodies such as the Scottish Arts Council or its successors.

Ms Glen also asked that Dundee be considered as the new home of Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council whose location is to be decided in 2007-08.

In addition she called for the Scottish Court Services Headquarters, before a lease break in 2009, and the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman, in advance of a 2008 lease break, to be relocated in the city.

In a letter of reply Scottish Executive Deputy Minister for Public Service Reform, George Lyon, said, “The Scottish Executive has been working closely with local authorities and local enterprise companies to identify potential locations in their area that would be suitable for the bodies or units covered by the Executive’s policy.

“As part of the exercise, Dundee City Council has suggested we target specific areas.

Mr Lyon continued, “Please be assured that as future location reviews begin, Dundee will be included on the list of potential location opportunities and assessed using the specific criteria set out in our guidance.

“These reviews always take the level of public sector employment into account, to ensure each part of Scotland has an opportunity to have its fair share of public service jobs.”

Ms Glen said Dundee would receive a welcome stimulus to its local economy from such job relocation.

“The growth of the public sector with high quality staff, in both the UK and Scottish Executive sectors, will reinforce the city’s new image. The city’s interests are best served by a vigorous and sustained policy of civil jobs dispersal applied by the Scottish Executive.”