HMRC has started to gradually move its staff into its first regional hub in Croydon today, with 2,600 full-time equivalent employees to occupy the new offices by 2021 as part of its office restructuring plans
HMRC told CCH Daily: ‘Staff will begin gradually moving into 1 Ruskin Square, Croydon, from 24 July.’
The tax authority will occupy building one at Ruskin Square in Croydon on a 25-year lease. Building one is the first structure to have been completed with over 180,000 sq. ft. of office space.
The 600 HMRC staff who are already based in Croydon will be part of the move to the new regional hub. HMRC said: ‘As part of our transformation programme, the existing Croydon office will be closing by late 2017 and staff will relocate to the new regional centre development.
‘It is a new building and part of the Ruskin Square development in Croydon next to East Croydon station. It has been chosen for its easy-to-reach location, with excellent transport links and quick access to Central London and a design which will provide HMRC with the digital infrastructure required by a modern tax authority.’
Ruskin Square is part of the Croydon Vision 2020 regeneration scheme. As well as HMRC’s building there will be another four office constructions but leases have not yet been agreed for these developments. There will also be apartment buildings and a retail space where a new Westfield is being built.
As part of HMRC’s office restructure project thousands of HMRC staff will relocate to a small number of locations from the current 137 local offices and centres across the country. Up to 6,000 redundancies are expected due to the geographic relocations. Moving to regional centres will save more than £300 million up to 2025, with annual cost savings of around £90 million from 2026, while improving customer service and modernising how HMRC work.
HMRC’s headquarters will remain in Whitehall but the amount of staff based there will be significantly reduced.
A 20-year lease has been signed at the New Waverley development in Edinburgh, which will include the Edinburgh HMRC regional centre. The 190,000 square feet office facility is next to central Waverley Rail Station. It will accommodate up to 2,900 civil servants from a number of departments.
HMRC’s restructuring plans have previously faced criticism from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) after it questioned the budget and projected costs savings, claiming that the tax authority had under-estimated how much the restructuration would cost.
