Corporate report

HMRC announces next step in its ten-year modernisation programme to become a tax authority for the future (2015)

Updated 8 January 2019

HMRC has today announced the next step in our ten-year modernisation programme to create a tax authority fit for the future, committing to high-quality jobs and the creation of new regional centres serving every region and nation in the UK.

This briefing explains how we will have fewer, more modern offices where highly-skilled staff will provide customers with better services.

1. Creating a modern tax authority

We’re transforming from an organisation with cumbersome manual processes into a smaller, more highly-skilled operation offering modern, digital services. In short, evolving rapidly from our 20th century legacy into an organisation fit for the future.

These changes mean we’ll be able to deliver better public services at lower cost to the taxpayer, meeting the government’s challenge for all departments to do more with less.

We’ve already made strong progress. We’re bringing in more money through our compliance work than ever before, and we’ve introduced cutting-edge data systems and online services that are already being used by millions of business and individual customers.

We aim to bring our employees together in 13 large, modern offices, equipped with the digital infrastructure and training facilities needed to build a more highly-skilled workforce. Our 58,000 full-time equivalent employees are currently spread throughout 170 offices across the country, many of which are a legacy of the 1960s and 1970s, which range in size from 5,700 people to fewer than ten.

The transformation supports the government’s commitment to locate jobs throughout the country with regional centres serving every nation and region in the UK.

2. Why we’re changing now

The changes we’re making reflect the challenges that many large customer-service organisations face. In particular, more and more people are managing their financial affairs online and the public expects the same high standards of service from HMRC as they do from banks and retailers.

This isn’t even new for us – almost all of our business customers deal with us online and more than eight out of ten Self Assessment returns this year came in digitally.

The changes mean we can give customers the modern services they now expect as we move firmly into the digital age – allowing us to deliver better public services at a lower cost to the taxpayer. We can’t achieve this unless we bring our workforce closer together in regional centres so they can collaborate better.

And because of the way our estates contract works, we’ll lose this opportunity for at least 15 years if we don’t act now.

3. How we’ll create regional centres

By consolidating from 170 offices across the UK into 13 regional centres, we’ll create modern, adaptable work spaces that will support the digital infrastructure, staff collaboration and development that we need to modernise.

Regional centres will vary in size and contain a mix of operational, tax professional and corporate services. They will range in size from 1,200 to 1,700 full-time equivalent employees at one end of the scale to 5,700 to 6,300 at the other.

4. Our future office locations

As a national organisation, we’ll maintain a significant presence serving every English region, as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

For that reason the 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
• London, South East and East of England – Stratford and Croydon

We plan to open our first new regional centre during 2016 to 2017, with the others opening over the following four years.

Regional centres will generally be within a city centre, where possible, and in locations with strong transport links. They will also have access to good housing, schools and recreational facilities.

We’ve explored a range of possible sites, from existing HMRC offices to new buildings that, in some cases, are still in the planning stage. We can’t yet say more about the exact locations, because we need to negotiate with landlords and contractors.

As we move to our new regional centres we’ll be keeping a limited number of transitional sites. They will be existing HMRC offices that will enable people to continue working for the department for up to 10 years – and in a small number of cases, potentially 12 years. They are located in Reading, Ipswich, Portsmouth, Washington and, subject to agreeing better terms with our landlord, East Kilbride.

In addition, we’ll have 4 specialist sites for work that cannot be done elsewhere, notably where we need to work with our IT suppliers or other government agencies or departments. These sites will be in Telford, Worthing, Dover and at the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh.

We’ll also retain a series of ‘stepping stone’ sites that will give options to staff whose offices close, but which will themselves close late in the current Spending Review period. These are Northampton, Exeter, Euston Tower, Luton, Maidstone, Bradford Peterborough, Southend, Luton, Ealing, Lawress Hall in Lincoln and Londonderry.

We will also retain a scaled-back presence in our 100 Parliament Street headquarters, for people who genuinely need to be near to Ministers.

These changes don’t mean the end of traditional enforcement visits or face-to-face support for vulnerable customers. Mobile teams – whether compliance or supporting customers who need extra help – will have access to network of local touchdown sites across the UK, where they will be able to log-in, meet customers or hold confidential briefings – and will have the mobile IT to support their work.

5. What it means for our workforce

Bringing staff together in large centres will enable people to develop careers up to senior levels.

We expect that 90% of our current workforce will either work in a regional centre or see out their career in an HMRC office.

Everyone working for HMRC will have the opportunity to discuss their personal circumstances with their manager ahead of any office closures or moves, so they can let them know about any issues that need to be taken into account when making decisions.

People will be told around a year in advance when they are moving to another office. If it’s a case of moving into a new regional centre, we’ll set out a clear timetable as soon as commercial negotiations have finished.

This does mean that by 2020 to 2021, we plan to close 137 offices. What we are planning is no reflection on the hard work and dedication shown by the people working in them who can be proud of their achievements.

Each of the regional centres will make a big contribution to the economies of the cities where we’re based, by providing more high-quality, skilled jobs. That’s because the types of role we’re offering is changing.

We need tax specialists with digital skills, along with data analysts and digital experts. That’s why we plan to work with universities and local colleges to attract the best and brightest talent. We have cutting-edge systems that enable analysts to sort and sift billions of pieces of data to find discrepancies – so we need people who understand digital technology and can make the most of it.