HMRC reveals massive office shake-up

HMRC is to close 24 local offices and replace them with two major regional centres in LIverpool and Manchester.

A major modernisation programme by the tax authorty will see the new regional centres created by 2019-20.  HMRC expects between 2,800 and 3,100 full-time equivalent employees to work in the Liverpool regional centre and between 5,600 and 5,900 full-time equivalent employees to work in the Manchester centre.

HMRC will close most of its existing offices – which range in size from 15 people to 1,770  by 2020-21. Where offices are a long way from a regional centre and it is not possible for employees to move, HMRC said it “will do everything it reasonably can” to help them to find new roles, either elsewhere in the civil service, or outside, in order to minimise redundancies.

Lin Homer, HMRC’s chief executive, said: “HMRC is committed to modern, regional centres serving every region and nation in the UK, with skilled and varied jobs and development opportunities, while also ensuring jobs are spread throughout the UK and not concentrated in the capital.

“HMRC has too many expensive, isolated and outdated offices. This makes it difficult for us to collaborate, modernise our ways of working, and make the changes we need to transform our service to customers and clamp down further on the minority who try to cheat the system.

“The new regional centres in Liverpool and Manchester will bring our staff together in more modern and cost-effective buildings in areas with lower rents. They will also make a big contribution to the economy of the North West region providing high-quality, skilled jobs and supporting the Government’s commitment to a national recovery that benefits all parts of the UK.”