Fears for jobs over tax office shake-up

From the archive, first published Thursday 7th Dec 2006.

IT will be a bleak Christmas for civil servants in Skipton who fear their jobs are unsafe in an imminent shake-up of their department.

Union bosses believe Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will move 50 workers from the town's Cavendish House to a main base in Bradford within the next 12 months.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU) says the move comes as the service - which combines Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue - plans to cut its budget by 15 per cent between 2008 and 2011.

Secretary of the union's Skipton branch, Samantha Allen, who works at Cavendish House, said it was a scary time for staff, and some employees from other sites had taken up the offer of early retirement.

She added: "Staff are frightened, basically. We know the work is being moved out of the office to Bradford, which means we will have to move with the work. The company has dedicated staff. Some people have worked here for 20 years and to say they are brassed off would be an understatement.

"They are seeing it as a slap in the face. It is no exaggeration to say people are sitting here thinking their little Johnny wants so and so for Christmas, and wondering if they are even going to have a job in the new year. It really has put a cloud over Christmas."

Local county and district councillor, Polly English, warned that businesses in Skipton would suffer without the service.

She said: "It is a local service being taken away again. It is simply not good enough. People around here, especially self-employed workers and businesses, need a tax office on hand to be able to ask for advice. If you want to speak to the Inland Revenue now, you are put through to Bradford and travelling to Bradford to get help with forms is not acceptable.

"If you live in Skipton and work in Skipton, you should not be expected to pay the expense of relocating or losing your job."

Coun English also warned that the town would eventually become "dormant" and "an elderly backwater" if businesses continued to be forced out.

PCSU general secretary Mark Serwotka added: "It is foolhardy in the extreme to think that cutting more jobs and closing more offices will improve service levels in HMRC. With a backlog of one million items of post already stacking up as the department slashes 12,500 jobs, further cuts will damage service levels and undermine the ability of the exchequer to collect revenue, leaving HMRC unfit for purpose.

"We are growing increasingly fearful that, as other departments also seek to cut their budgets by 15 per cent over the same period, more job cuts will follow elsewhere. Time is running out for the Government, which needs to wake up to the fact that cuts mean deteriorating service levels and that decent public services need people to deliver them."

A spokesman for HMRC said no final decisions had been made, but ultimately the department was acting to save taxpayers' money.

He added that Skipton, along with offices in Leeds, Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Keighley, Pontefract, Shipley and Wakefield, would ultimately form part of its Leeds, Bradford and Shipley urban centre.

He added: "Whatever the outcome of the consultation and review, we will retain a face-to-face service within the town."

But Skipton MP David Curry condemned the department for not being straight with employees.

He said: "Employees deserve to be told clearly the situation so they are not left in a fog of uncertainty. This will give them the opportunity to look at their options, including looking for other jobs. This is going to be a particular problem for small businesses in Craven which we should be supporting after foot and mouth."

He added that employees living in rural areas, where public transport was scarce, could be forced out of their jobs.