Tax office closure plan condemned

Jun 13 2008 by Les Stewart

ANGRY union officials vowed yesterday to fight the planned closure of the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) office in Perth, with the loss of 19 jobs.

The Watergate operation, which also deals with local tax and benefit inquiries, is set to close in the spring of next year, with the jobs being transferred to Glenrothes or Dundee.

A spokeswoman for HMRC explained: “By consolidating work in fewer locations, we will be able to work more efficiently, and so improve customer service, as well as providing better value for money.”

Management have now embarked on an eight-week consultation period.

But John Oswald, chairman of the Scotland East branch of the Public and Commercial Services Union, pledged to campaign vigorously against the closure.

He said that the office, which has had a presence in Perth for the past 25 years, had suffered “death by a thousand cuts” at the hands of Central Government.

“Two years ago there were 38 people employed at the office. Now we are down to half that number.

“The mood has gone from shock, despair and depression to one of anger and we plan to do all we can to stop the axe falling locally.”

He said yesterday that they had already received tremendous support from Perth and North Perthshire SNP MP Pete Wishart.

Now they plan to enlist the help of Perth and Kinross Council and local representatives of the National Pensioners’ Convention, as well as mobilise public opinion and support.

“People might not immediately unite behind a campaign to ‘Save their local Tax Office,’ bearing in mind what we do,” conceded Mr Oswald.

“But if the office closes down, there will be fewer people able to investigate tax matters and the situation could turn into a cheats’ charter, with repercussions for the wider public further down the line.

“For members in Perth, the prospect of moves to Glenrothes or Dundee mean longer working days or uprooting their families if they wish to stay in HMRC.”

Branch secretary Hamish Drummond added: “The loss of the Perth office is not something that we will accept without a fight and we will continue to campaign for its retention.”

Pete Wishart, who has been closely involved in discussions surrounding the future of the office, branded the planned closure a “bitter blow.”

He added: “This closure of Perth’s HMRC office has been one of calculation and stealth, which has slowly but surely stripped this centre back to the bone.

“There has been a tax office in the Fair City as long as long as there has been a system of taxation in Scotland!

“I fully supported the PCS campaign to stop the heart being ripped out of public service provision. What people want, and quite simply what works, is being able to speak to people face to face rather than being shunted onto telephone lines to centralised teams that are based hundreds of miles away.

“This move will see a loss of a range of employment opportunities and I think it is a bitter blow to lose these high quality Civil Service jobs from Perthshire.

“The Government's treatment of Civil Service workers in this centralisation push has been atrocious, with Perth workers being described as ‘pre-surplus’ more than a year ago.

“My office receives a constant stream of complaints about the operation of these systems and few of them ever relate to the efforts of individual staff members, but have everything to do with the massive cuts being imposed by Central Government.

“How closing down a local office will assist with HMRC’s operations in Perthshire is beyond me.

“This closure threatens to disadvantage the most vulnerable, whether it is for Tax Credits, benefits or many other government services and this course of action can only degrade these services to constituents in Perth and North Perthshire.”

Perth SNP MSP Roseanna Cunningham also slammed the closure announcement.

“This is very disappointing news indeed,” she said. “As usual, the HMRC announcement has been couched in weasel words about improving service, modernising operations and working more efficiently.

“The fact is that for the first time since taxation began in Scotland, Perth will no longer have a tax office.

“But my objection to this closure is not about the loss of an historic connection but the loss of local jobs and the withdrawal of a public service where the folk of Perth had the opportunity to go into a local office and speak directly to an individual rather than having to negotiate the maze of phone ‘helplines’.

“HMRC staff and the public have been very badly served by this decision by a Westminster Labour Government which is utterly blind to the needs of communities like Perth.”