Work has started on the second building to be developed at the Arena Central project in Birmingham city centre.
3 Arena Central will be home to staff from HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions after a 25-year lease deal was struck last year for the entire 14-storey building.
There will be more than 3,600 civil servants based there by 2020 where they will join the new head office of HSBC UK on the development.
Steven Boyd, estates director for HMRC, is quoted by the Birmingham Post:
"This is an important milestone in the delivery of the Government Hub in Birmingham, which will be the new home for HMRC in the West Midlands.I wonder if, when he made the comment about increasing HMRC's effectiveness, he had in the back of his mind HMRC's proximity to HSBC?
When it is built, the new building will mean our staff can work in a modern and bright environment, while working collaboratively with other teams, to increase our effectiveness in collecting taxes."
For reference:
HSBC tax avoidance scandal: Timeline of Britain's biggest banking leak
Tax does have to be taxing.
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The reported comment from Steven Boyd makes it sound like this was some sort of strategic plan, thought through in great detail to deliver HMRC's "business" to the taxpayer. As opposed to the reality i.e it was one in a long succession of knee jerk reactions made by clueless idiots whose sole raison d'etre is to cut the public service until it bleeds dry. The best saving would be to sack the Board and the hundreds of totally unproductive senior managers. This would result in £millions of savings per annum, whilst instantly freeing the remaining staff to pursue the collection of tax, as opposed to worshipping LEAN, as their primary role.
ReplyDeleteWith the Hmrc bullying culture going on unchecked, the Board and Senior Management are simply on the gravy train while failing to ensure compliance with an employer's legal obligations. Completely agree - sack the lot and, old-fashioned as it may be, put the money into collecting tax FFS.
DeleteSpot on @17:45
DeleteSuppose it means they could knock on their next-door neighbour's door and ask if they could borrow some sweeteners?
ReplyDelete