The Location of Offices Bureau was set up in April 1963 by the United Kingdom government as part of its policy of dispersing office jobs from the centre of London.

Developers wishing to build new offices in London required permits from the Bureau. The need for such permits lasted throughouht the 1970s.

It was claimed that between 1963 and 1969 some 24,000 jobs a year were dispersed

In 1966 the Location of Offices Bureau published "Commuters to the London Office - a survey" that indicated that 53% of commuters would prefer to work closer to home than in Central London

Central London

Central London is the innermost part of London, England. There is no official or commonly accepted definition of its area, but its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally,...

.

The Bureau was one of the many quango

Quango

Quango or qango is an acronym used notably in the United Kingdom, Ireland and elsewhere to label an organisation to which government has devolved power...

s abolished in the early years of the administration of Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

as part of the economic liberalism of the 1980s.