Future Of Wrexham Tax Office In Doubt
Hundreds of jobs at the Wrexham tax office have been thrown into doubt with uncertainty surrounding the future of the facility.
As part of an ongoing process to centralise facilities HMRC are looking to potentially axe the Wrexham Technology Park office and move the service to Liverpool or Manchester.
The plans come as part of the HMRC’s ‘Building Our Future’, an ‘ambitious’ programme that will transform how the company serve the public in the next few years.
However proposals to relocate the Wrexham office to Liverpool or Manchester has been slammed, with Llyr Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru AM for North Wales described the plans as ‘unacceptable’.
Speaking today about the proposals Mr Gruffydd said: “We have seen years of centralising services and closing smaller offices across the North. The Wrexham office employs more than 400 staff and news that HMRC is planning to centralise even further to Manchester or Liverpool is completely unacceptable. The local economy is already fragile and this will be a huge loss to that economy.
“Tax evasion and avoidance are huge political issues and all parties pay lip service to closing loopholes. It is therefore perverse that the numbers of HMRC workers – the very people that collect taxes – will have been halved by successive London governments when they pay for themselves 10 times over in terms of ensuring tax dodgers pay up.”
As part of the ‘Building Our Future’ programme early ‘thinking’ is that Cardiff would become home to a regional centre for Wales. For Wrexham the nearest facility would be either Liverpool or Manchester – however no final decisions have yet been made regarding any site.
In a letter sent by the HMRC to Plaid Cymru’s shadow spokesperson for work and pensions, Hywel Williams MP, a spokesperson notes: “We are going to bring our IT and infrastructure right up to date and draw most of our teams closer in a smaller number of large, modern and adaptable Regional Centres, where our people will have more opportunities to build their careers and skills. We will support these centres with a UK-wide network of smaller specialist touchdown sites.
“We are currently considering what these offices of the future will look like and where we will locate them. As part of this work we are involving all of our people in a national conversation about the future shape of the department. We are holding these conversations in hundreds of meetings across the UK and expect more detail to be available in 2015.”
Hywel Williams MP has called the proposals a ‘blow against devolving tax powers to Wales’.
Mr Williams added: £While HRMC’s intent is clear – they want to centralise regional offices and replace them with one new centre in either Liverpool or Manchester – too much of their plans remain unconfirmed. HMRC need to come clean with their plans immediately.
“On the one hand, the UK Government are willing to allow Wales more control over its taxes yet, on the other, the administration of these powers are being shunted across the border to England.
“These continuing cuts in HMRC are not only taking quality well-paid jobs out of our communities, but putting at risk an already inadequately staffed tax-collecting system.”
Over the past few years HMRC has seen a considerable reduction in the number its employees and offices across the country, with the company having 96,000 full time employees based across 593 offices. However there are now fewer than 66,000 full time employees and 190 offices. By April 2016 HMRC is expected to have reduced further to 55,000 full time employees.
It is hoped the majority of workforce cuts can be made from people retiring, reducing their hours or taking jobs outside the apartment.
