Wrexham’s HMRC Office Under Threat – 350 Jobs At Risk

UPDATE: The announcements have now been made – you can read our follow up article here.

Original story below…

Wrexham’s HMRC office could be in line for a staged closure over the next five years, with 170 tax offices closing nationwide in favour of 13 new regional centres.

Back in March we reported on proposals to potentially axe the Wrexham Technology Park office and move the service to a regional centre in Liverpool or Manchester, with a timeline of around five years being mooted for the changes.

Late last night The Telegraph reported HM Revenue & Customs will announce today it is closing all 170 of its offices across the country, which would include Wrexham, in favour of 13 new regional tax centres.

The Telegraph report said: “The Daily Telegraph understands the radical plan, which will leave towns and cities across the country without a tax office and is likely to lead to thousands of its 56,000 staff being made redundant in the long term, will be announced to staff as early as Thursday.”

The Telegraph quotes a HMRC spokesperson saying: “An HMRC spokesman said: “[On Thursday] we will inform our staff about the future direction of our estate. We have been clear for some time that this will mean fewer, but larger and more modern offices that will help us to deliver better services to our customers and bring in more tax revenue for public services. These changes are part of an ongoing modernisation programme begun several years ago and will take place over the next 10 years.”

A blog entitled HMRCIsShite copies an internal memo that says an announcement is due to staff at 11am with staff at HMRC offices ceasing work for the nationwide information bulletin to be read to staff.

If the Wrexham office is one which could be ‘overhauled’ into a regional service elsewhere, we are told an estimated 350 jobs could be at risk.

More information later today…