HMRC confirms 93 UK offices will shut from next year
05 December 2008
Unions have claimed that more than 3,400 jobs will be lost at HM Revenue and Customs after it confirmed yesterday that 93 tax offices across the UK will close.
The cuts are part of the government’s latest efficiency drive, which requires the department to make 5 per cent annual savings in the three years up to 2011. The tax offices affected will be closed down in phases starting in the new year.
PCS, the biggest civil service union, reacted angrily to the announcement, warning that the closures would be “bad for business, the public and the taxpayer and would lead to the loss of valuable skills and expertise”.
Over 17,000 jobs have already been lost at the department since March 2004 as part of continuing efficiency drives, said the union, and services were “already suffering”.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said: “As the recession worsens, this will come as a bitter blow to a dedicated workforce and will lead to a loss of valuable knowledge and expertise. Job cuts are already damaging the ability of HMRC to function and undermining public confidence in the department.”
HMRC said all job cuts so far had been achieved through voluntary redundancy, retirement or natural wastage and compulsory redundancies would be avoided “wherever reasonably possible”.