Union's fear over merger of Telford tax offices
Union bosses say they are worried about the effect Telford's four tax offices merging will have on the county.
The Public and Commercial Services Union claims the potential job loses could be "detrimental" for those employed by HM Revenue and Custom (HMRC).
Three of the four HMRC offices in the town centre will shut within the next five years after it was revealed this week – and bosses have refused to rule out job loses.
The union has called for full public and parliamentary scrutiny of the decision.
Pat Turner, Telford's elected branch secretary for the PCS union, said: "Although HMRC has committed to have a presence in Telford, we are worried about how substantial that will be. Telford is going to be kept as a specialist site which will be for jobs that HMRC say cannot be done anywhere else.
"That is the level of uncertainty, what does that mean? We have not been consulted at a local or national level. We have asked the questions but we have not got an answer.
"Potential job losses could be detrimental for the economy of the area. From a PCS point of view we are also looking at Telford's position in the national picture.
"HMRC is pulling out of 125 locations which is potentially devastating for those areas."
"HMRC has faced scathing criticism and it is hard to see how closing offices is going to improve the matter.
"If they have confidence in these plans they should commit to going through this scrutiny process."
HMRC said it would make way for the creation of a "specialist site" in the town at one of the existing complexes – either Boyd House, Abbey House or Matheson House – as one of its "core digital centres".
Nationally HMRC is planning to close 137 offices under a modernisation programme.
A total of 13 new regional centres will be opened over the next five years.
Telford MP Lucy Allan said: "Whilst appreciating the need to run services in a more cost effective manner it is vital that any job losses in Telford are kept to an absolute minimum.
"Telford has an increasingly skilled work-force and HMRC should work to ensure that as many employees as possible are given the chance to re-deploy to both limit redundancies in the town and ensure that this valuable talent pool is not wasted."
