HMRC is consolidating its 170 offices across the UK into 13 large regional centres and four specialist sites over a four-year period, beginning in 2016, as part of its ‘next step in our ten-year modernisation programme to create a tax authority fit for the future’.
HMRC’s 58,000 full-time equivalent employees are spread around the country in offices that range in size from around 6,000 people to fewer than ten. ‘HMRC has too many expensive, isolated and outdated offices,’ chief executive Lin Homer said. ‘This makes it difficult for us to collaborate, modernise our ways of working, and make the changes we need to transform our service.’ The department says it expects to retain 90% of the current workforce within the new centres and generate savings of £100m a year by 2025.
The views from tax professionals varied. The Institute of Directors (IoD) head of tax Stephen Herring said the IoD supported the changes: ‘We should welcome the fact that our tax collectors have recognised how to get more bang for their buck by embracing the technology available to them.’ Meanwhile, Jim Meakin, RSM’s UK head of tax, took a more cautious view, saying: ‘Is this change designed to provide a better service to HMRC’s customers or simply save costs? If it is the former, then it is to be welcomed; if it is the latter, then there is a risk that service standards will slip. If the move to a hub will help to guarantee swifter response times, and even perhaps someone who will answer the telephone when it rings and who is trained to deal with my query, then the location of the HMRC hub becomes somewhat irrelevant in this digital age.’
HMRC has said that its four specialist sites, dealing with work that cannot be done elsewhere, will be in Telford, Worthing, Dover and at the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh. The 13 new regional centres will be in:
North East – Newcastle;
North West – Manchester and Liverpool;
Yorkshire and the Humber – Leeds;
East Midlands – Nottingham;
West Midlands – Birmingham;
Wales – Cardiff;
Northern Ireland – Belfast;
Scotland – Glasgow and Edinburgh;
South West – Bristol; and
London, South East and East of England – Stratford and Croydon.
Regional centres will vary in size and in the mix of operational, tax professional and corporate services work that they contain. The smallest will hold 1,200 to 1,300 full-time equivalent members of staff; and the largest, operationally-focused centres will hold more than 6,000. Moving more office space outside of central London will enable HMRC ‘to make substantial savings’.
The biggest challenge for HMRC, some said, would not be to save £100m, but to reorganise for change so that its staff are able to train, collaborate and provide a significantly better service all round. CIOT president Chris Jones commented: ‘Taxpayers and tax professionals alike will be anxious that a public body that is struggling to meet its public-facing service targets has announced it is about to lose many staff and close its local offices. It is crucial that HMRC retains as many appropriately qualified and experienced staff as it can [and] closely and continuously monitors the impact of its restructure on the quality of its service to the public over the next ten years; and acts promptly to rectify any failure to meet its targets.’
However, some were outright scathing of HMRC’s plans. Gary Gardner, Blick Rothenberg tax disputes partner, said: ‘HMRC’s failure to get anywhere close to meeting its published customer service standards or make any real impact in tackling non-compliance, avoidance and evasion has finally led Lin Homer to announce yet another programme of change. Under the banner of “building our future”, the stated ambition of this “austerity” driven retrenchment in presence and headcount is to bring its people together in 13 regional (metropolitan) centres, harnessing technology. One does wonder what game-changing digital advances and training facilities HMRC might have in mind to meet the demands of the 21st century.’
HMRC is consolidating its 170 offices across the UK into 13 large regional centres and four specialist sites over a four-year period, beginning in 2016, as part of its ‘next step in our ten-year modernisation programme to create a tax authority fit for the future’.
HMRC’s 58,000 full-time equivalent employees are spread around the country in offices that range in size from around 6,000 people to fewer than ten. ‘HMRC has too many expensive, isolated and outdated offices,’ chief executive Lin Homer said. ‘This makes it difficult for us to collaborate, modernise our ways of working, and make the changes we need to transform our service.’ The department says it expects to retain 90% of the current workforce within the new centres and generate savings of £100m a year by 2025.
The views from tax professionals varied. The Institute of Directors (IoD) head of tax Stephen Herring said the IoD supported the changes: ‘We should welcome the fact that our tax collectors have recognised how to get more bang for their buck by embracing the technology available to them.’ Meanwhile, Jim Meakin, RSM’s UK head of tax, took a more cautious view, saying: ‘Is this change designed to provide a better service to HMRC’s customers or simply save costs? If it is the former, then it is to be welcomed; if it is the latter, then there is a risk that service standards will slip. If the move to a hub will help to guarantee swifter response times, and even perhaps someone who will answer the telephone when it rings and who is trained to deal with my query, then the location of the HMRC hub becomes somewhat irrelevant in this digital age.’
HMRC has said that its four specialist sites, dealing with work that cannot be done elsewhere, will be in Telford, Worthing, Dover and at the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh. The 13 new regional centres will be in:
North East – Newcastle;
North West – Manchester and Liverpool;
Yorkshire and the Humber – Leeds;
East Midlands – Nottingham;
West Midlands – Birmingham;
Wales – Cardiff;
Northern Ireland – Belfast;
Scotland – Glasgow and Edinburgh;
South West – Bristol; and
London, South East and East of England – Stratford and Croydon.
Regional centres will vary in size and in the mix of operational, tax professional and corporate services work that they contain. The smallest will hold 1,200 to 1,300 full-time equivalent members of staff; and the largest, operationally-focused centres will hold more than 6,000. Moving more office space outside of central London will enable HMRC ‘to make substantial savings’.
The biggest challenge for HMRC, some said, would not be to save £100m, but to reorganise for change so that its staff are able to train, collaborate and provide a significantly better service all round. CIOT president Chris Jones commented: ‘Taxpayers and tax professionals alike will be anxious that a public body that is struggling to meet its public-facing service targets has announced it is about to lose many staff and close its local offices. It is crucial that HMRC retains as many appropriately qualified and experienced staff as it can [and] closely and continuously monitors the impact of its restructure on the quality of its service to the public over the next ten years; and acts promptly to rectify any failure to meet its targets.’
However, some were outright scathing of HMRC’s plans. Gary Gardner, Blick Rothenberg tax disputes partner, said: ‘HMRC’s failure to get anywhere close to meeting its published customer service standards or make any real impact in tackling non-compliance, avoidance and evasion has finally led Lin Homer to announce yet another programme of change. Under the banner of “building our future”, the stated ambition of this “austerity” driven retrenchment in presence and headcount is to bring its people together in 13 regional (metropolitan) centres, harnessing technology. One does wonder what game-changing digital advances and training facilities HMRC might have in mind to meet the demands of the 21st century.’
