THREE tax offices in the Bradford district are to close under changes announced today by HM Revenue and Customs.

The closures will mean almost 2,000 jobs will be lost to the area by 2021.

Large offices at Centenary Court, the Interchange and Shipley Accounts office are all due to shut between 2019 and 2021 and a new office will open in Leeds, at a location to be announced.

HMRC said many of its buildings were from the 1960s and 1970s and 12 will be closed across the county, but Shipley MP Philip Davies (Con) said that was no reason to shut them.

"People are more important than buildings," he said, adding that he was sorry to hear of the closures and would work with Bradford Council to try and find an alternative office space in Bradford.

PCS Union Branch Secretary Paul Tillyer said: "This is a major blow for Bradford and Shipley. Today's announcement follows the dismantling of the local tax office network. The decision to relocate makes no economic sense and seems to fly in the face of HMRC commitments to reduce staff travel and increase access to housing and schools.

"This is a massive snub to Bradford and smacks of a decision based on the convenience and status of senior civil servants rather than the needs of the majority of staff and our customers. Staff have had to cope with ever increasing workloads and constant change.

"HMRC is currently failing because it has had too much change over too short a timescale coupled with massive job losses.

"At a time when investment is starting to come to Bradford and Shipley the sensible approach would be to have a split Regional hub based in Bradford and Leeds.

"The Public & Commercial Services Union will be subjecting these plans to rigorous scrutiny, urging major consultation and parliamentary oversight."

The office in Centenary Court will close in 2020/21 and the one in The Interchange is set to go in 2019/20. The accounts office in Shipley may close in 2019/20.

HMRC said the plans were the next step in its ten-year modernisation programme to “create a tax authority fit for the future”, and said it was “committing to high-quality jobs” and the creation of a new regional centre in Leeds by 2019/20.

The plan is said to support the Government’s commitment to building a Northern Powerhouse, with the north having around 40 per cent of HMRC staff located there by 2020/21 with between 4,100 and 4,400 full-time equivalent employees in Yorkshire and the Humber.

HMRC’s workforce in the region is currently spread throughout 13 offices, many of which it said were a legacy of the 1960s and 1970s, which range in size from around 900 people to fewer than ten.

The department said by bringing them together in large, modern offices, it would support more skilled jobs and varied career paths up to senior levels with less need to move around the country.

HMRC expects between 4,100 and 4,400 full-time equivalent employees to work in the Leeds regional centre.

HMRC will close most of its existing offices in Yorkshire and the Humber by 2020/21, as it moves most employees into the new regional centre.

A spokesman said that if offices were a long way from a regional centre and it was not possible for employees to move to work in one, HMRC would do everything it reasonably could to help them to find new roles, either elsewhere in the civil service, or outside, in order to minimise redundancies.

HMRC’s Chief Executive Lin Homer said: “HMRC is committed to modern, regional centres serving every region and nation in the UK, with skilled and varied jobs and development opportunities, while also ensuring jobs are spread throughout the UK and not concentrated in the capital.

“HMRC has too many expensive, isolated and outdated offices. This makes it difficult for us to collaborate, modernise our ways of working, and make the changes we need to transform our service to customers and clamp down further on the minority who try to cheat the system.

“The new regional centre in Leeds will bring our staff together in a more modern and cost-effective building in an area with lower rent. It will also make a big contribution to the economy of the region, providing high-quality, skilled jobs and supporting the Government’s commitment to a national recovery that benefits all parts of the UK.”

The changes will enable HMRC to give customers the modern services they now expect at a lower cost to the taxpayer, meeting the Government’s challenge for all departments to do more with less.

A HMRC spokesman said the modernisation programme, now at the halfway point, included investment in new online services, data analytics, new compliance techniques, new skills and new ways of working, to make it easier for the honest majority of customers to pay their tax, including by improving customer service, and harder for the dishonest minority to cheat the system.

The department said the changes had already resulted in over 80 per cent of people filing their Self-Assessment returns online.

The offices to close are:

  • Bradford (Centenary Court) will close 2020/21;
  • Bradford (The Interchange) will close 2019/20;
  • Grimsby (Imperial House) will close 2020/21;
  • Harrogate (Victoria Avenue) will close 2016/17;
  • Hull (Cherry Court) will close 2020/21;
  • Leeds (Munroe Court) will close 2019/20;
  • Leeds (Castle House) will close 2019/20;
  • Leeds (Peter Bennett House) will close 2019/20;
  • Leeds (Windsor House) will close 2020/21;
  • Sheffield (Concept House) will close 2010/21;
  • Shipley (Accounts Office) may close in 2019/20;
  • York (Swinson House) will close 2019/20.