Wrexham HMRC tax office to shut threatening 270 jobs

About 270 staff are based at the Wrexham Technology Park office

The tax office in Wrexham will shut at the end of September 2020, threatening 270 jobs.

The staff are employed at the Wrexham HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) office, and will have to relocate or face losing their jobs.

The office has been threatened with closure since 2015, when HMRC announced plans to centralise operations into 13 hubs across the UK.

HMRC said it was creating a tax authority "fit for the future".

'Body blow'

Staff at the Wrexham Technology Park office have been offered the chance to move to Liverpool, Cardiff or a smaller specialist site in Telford.

An HMRC spokesman said: "We continue to support our people in relocating to the Liverpool regional centre and we appreciate some staff in Wrexham will be unable 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 HMRC office."

Wrexham MP Ian Lucas described the decision as one of the worst he had seen in 18 years as an MP.  

He said: "HMRC's shifting of tax offices away from local towns into larger city centres flies in the face of balanced, sensible government and is a body blow to towns suffering from empty high streets, reduced bus services and evidence of young people moving away to city centres to seek work."