140 jobs set to be lost with closure of Telford's HMRC office

Staff will be having one-to-one meetings with managers at Abbey House, in White Chapel Way, in the coming weeks to work out whether they can move to other centres.

The site is used for a number of roles including tax compliance, the delivery of HMRC’s digital tax services, and work on preparing for Brexit.

Pat Turner, the local PCS union branch secretary, said thousands of years of experience would be lost when the branch is closed.

But HMRC said efforts would be made to retain as many staff as possible.

"This is a massive disappointment for the staff affected, and no-one wins from this decision," Mr Turner said.

"We estimate the overwhelming majority of the staff are outside of the department’s definition of reasonable daily travel, and will therefore be faced with the unenviable choice between extremely lengthy and unpleasant commutes, or being in a potential redundancy situation.

Transforming

"Around 60 per cent of the staff are women, with a huge proportion being carers for children and other family members.

"From an HMRC perspective, with so many staff unlikely to move with the work, literally thousands of years of experience is being lost at a time when HMRC’s CEO has announced they are likely to need thousands more staff in the wake of Brexit.”

A HMRC spokesperson said: “HMRC is transforming into a more highly-skilled organisation offering modern, digital services – a tax authority fit for the future. It has secured sites for all of its future regional centres serving every region and country of the United Kingdom and they are in locations where the majority of HMRC employees are already based.

“HMRC has been clear that if someone can move to a regional centre and has the skills it needs or is able to develop them, there will be a role for them. Planning indicated that up to 90 per cent of its workforce, from across the UK, who were in the department in 2015, would either work in a regional centre or see out their career in an existing HMRC office.

“We continue to support our people in non-specialist roles in Telford to relocate to Birmingham. We recognise some staff will not be able to move and we will work with them to try to find them alternative solutions.

“We want to keep as many staff as possible and expect the vast majority of the current workforce will either work in a regional centre or see out their career in an existing HMRC office.”