The closure of UK tax offices in small towns hinders raising targets

The October decision to close the HM Revenue & Customs tax office in the town of Bootle in northwestern England was not a major issue for Nadeem Patel.

After two difficult years of fighting the coronavirus, the idea was that more than 1,000 jobs were relocated to near Liverpool. Patel said his habit at the New Strand store dropped by 50 percent some days, while cigarette sales dropped by nearly two-thirds.

“We have stopped selling sandwiches because no one comes to eat lunch, or pick up cigarettes,” he said. “You can feel the descent. Every day I wonder what the future holds.”

The opposition Labor Party has said the closure of the Bootle tax office – part of a nationwide reform by the HMRC – is facing a promise of “upgrades” in the 2019 Conservative election manifesto that seeks to redistribute resources equally, particularly in northern England. in the Midlands.

Under the HMRC system, which began in 2015, 170 small, old tax offices in towns and small towns are closed, including many of its 65,000 into 13 major cities in major cities, such as Liverpool Birmingham and Manchester.

The reforms have continued since Boris Johnson became UK prime minister in July 2019, although his Conservative party won an election later that year, led by a major revolt by Labor voters in the country’s areas under the promise of a promotion. .

Johnson has promised to breathe a sigh of relief into the so-called “abandoned cities” of the UK. But under its rule, more than 7,700 HMRC projects have moved to more prosperous rural areas, according to the Public and Commercial Services Union.

The affected areas include the English towns of Shipley (924 HMRC jobs lost), Stockton-on-Tees (375), Preston (335) and Grimsby (117), as well as Sunderland (243) and Wrexham (249) in Wales.

Other closures are expected in the next two years in Cumbernauld and Dundee in Scotland, with Nottingham, Peterlee and Salford in England.

Lisa Nandy, a graphic designer, said the move “has taken over” thousands of towns for good, artistic work. “Stability is starting to look like a fraud, giving us small money pots to upgrade our highways and get rid of the good jobs that help them,” he said.

“You can think of ‘raising’ the government might want to reconsider,” said Peter Dowd, MP for Bootle Labor, standing under the Triad office, which is now vacant. “But he just kept on insisting no matter what.”

The HMRC stated in its statement that the policy will support the government’s “modern policies” and is part of promoting growth and employment opportunities in all areas.

The only Triad building – the ugly, 1970s tower block – will not be occupied by HMRC staff according to Dave Gibbons, a local PCS representative. But he said a new technology would be available at Bootle.

When the third HMRC office in Bootle closes in October, it will leave Liverpool, a multicultural and multi-million dollar city that costs $ 3.3bn a year, home to 4,000 taxpayers.

Bootle, which has more than 1 percent of the most scarce areas in the UK, has no such attraction. Surprisingly, the troubled Merseyside town was reorganized in the 1960’s and 1970’s by relocating government offices to the area. “It’s like he turns the switch on and puts it back,” Dowd said.

There is no further review of the HMRC reform after the government announced plans to relocate government workers from London to the northern cities by 2020.

Last year, Michael Gove, still the Minister in the Ministerial Office overseeing the program, said the commitment included the transfer of 22,000 jobs from London by 2030 as part of the planning process.

Gove, who has been secretary general, said plans to open major offices outside London, including the Treasury in Darlington and the new East Kilbride Foreign Office, will ensure that policies are “developed and delivered by foreign nationals. Rural areas”.

The truth is, however, that public works have been created more rapidly in London than anywhere else in the last two years with the rise of legal experts to deal with Brexit and the Covid-19 epidemic.

Since the Tories took power in 2010 there have been Net quantity of 15,401 London civil servants and a decrease of 58,005 anywhere in the UK, according to government figures.

Martin Kelsey, secretary of the HMRC staff team at PCS, said the tax evasion program was “not in line with” Gove’s vision.

“Gove says this, big, but the realities we face at HMRC are very different. We have seen a lot of people leave since 2015 because of people who are unable to go to these areas,” he added.

The Department of Leveling up, Housing and Communities declined to comment.

HMRC has provided Bootle employees with access to other government services. There is also financial support for travel workers in Liverpool and the opportunity to work from home two days a week. It added that Liverpool hub offers a “safe and modern environment”.

Bootle had another setback last March, when a team from Santander, a local bank manager, he announced it was out. The town’s request for £ 17m from the new government Company Ideas Leveling Up Fund it was also rejected.

Dowd said it was a little comforting that HMRC operations had moved four kilometers to Liverpool. “It does not matter if the work is going” down the road “as the government often says. Having 2,000 people in one place, five days a week, was a lot of money for the local economy.”