HMRC confirms office closures
HMRC has confirmed plans to stop all business activity at 130 offices earmarked for closure.
Statistics from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) suggest that the closures would see up to 1,700 staff out of work.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka commented: “Access to tax advice in communities across the UK will be damaged by the confirmation of these closures, which will hit businesses and the public, as well as taking quality jobs out of local communities during a recession.
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No overall gain
With closure of country offices we’ll be in the position of dealing with more people without country experience - who don’t know the difference between a cow and a bullock, don’t understand what “arable” is or understand what a “capital intensive business” is or means, don’t know the difference between wheat and barley straw, how to value the “old grey mare” (the “wife”, a joke, but I have come across this on a stock schedule), and we’ll be on to more “baby cows” instead of calves, questions such as what does a wayleave look like and what do you feed them, never mind the “why do you live on the farm, why not sell the farmhouse and live a few miles away where it is cheaper and nearer the shops”.
Those people of a mature generation, and I’m not just talking OAP’s, who live in the country and are only used to doing things on a personal level will get into some serious difficulties without a local Revenue office. Without that personal facility I suspect, like many people alienated from the internet etc, they will recede into their own private community. And all this from a labour government who claims to care about the community.
To discuss the reasons given for closures is, I think, foolish. Purely excuses to justify cost cutting that itself arose out of an ill judged and badly planned scheme to merge tax authorities. As far as I can see, we have all lost.