Revenue and Customs: Location

(asked on 3rd July 2017) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the oral evidence from the Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to the Public Accounts Committee on the HMRC estate on 25 January 2017, Question 14, HC891, which locations HMRC initially considered as possible regional centres.


Answered by
Mel Stride Portrait
Mel Stride
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
This question was answered on 11th July 2017

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) established a clear set of eight location principles to determine the location of its regional centres. These were:

  • · Sustainable large sites – having the capacity to hold all HMRC’s requirements for the region in a single building, ideally accommodating no less than 1,500 staff.
  • · Talent pipeline – offering access to a pipeline of future talent, with the skills HMRC needs, for example, close to universities and colleges.
  • · Single location career paths – offering the chance to build careers and skills to a senior level in a number of professions in a single location without the need to move.
  • · Catchment for a mix of business activity – the right grouping of existing teams to allow a diverse mix of business activities to be brought together in the same place.
  • · Digital infrastructure – having high capacity, high speed digital infrastructure and mobile networks to benefit customers and staff.
  • · Facilities for HMRC’s people – access to good housing, schools and recreational facilities, so HMRC can recruit and retain staff.
  • · Market rates- delivering good value for money in property and labour costs.
  • · Robust long-term infrastructure – locations with the right infrastructure for the long term such as strong transport links within the region and nationally.

HMRC values its people and wants as many as possible to move with the work to the regional centres. In addition to the eight location principles, it looked at where its staff live and initially assessed more than 40 of its existing medium to large sized locations against the principles as possible regional centres. These included: Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Blackburn, Bolton, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Chatham, Chesterfield, Dover, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Grimsby, Harwich, Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Maidstone, Manchester, Newcastle, Northampton, Nottingham, Peterborough, Peterlee, Preston, Plymouth, Reading, Redruth, Sheffield, Shipley, Solent (including Portsmouth), Southend-on-Sea, Stockton-on –Tees, Taunton, Telford, Workington, Worthing, Wrexham. For areas where a particular town was part of a conurbation, the conurbation was assessed as part of those listed above, for example Sunderland and Washington as part of Newcastle.

HMRC’s Programme Business Case has received approval from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Reticulating Splines