Agents briefing – North West proposals: Liverpool Manchester and Preston/Blackpool urban centres

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) Change Programme

This briefing provides further information about our plans to modernise and transform our services for customers. We are carrying out a series of Regional Planning Reviews that will bring HMRC’s estates provision and staffing levels into line with our plans to modernise the department, making our operations more efficient while improving our service to customers.

We are now well over a year into that programme and we have been progressively consulting with our staff as well as talking to Members of Parliament and our key stakeholder groups.

Key headlines are:

Liverpool

Six office buildings will house the department’s future operations in the Liverpool area. Five other offices are to be vacated on a phased basis beginning in early 2009. Enquiry Centres will remain in, or near, their current location.

The buildings being retained are:

  • Litherland House, Litherland Road, Bootle Merseyside L20 3AT
  • St Johns House, Merton Road, Bootle, Merseyside L69 9BB
  • The Triad, Stanley Road, Bootle, Merseyside L75 1HX
  • Imperial Court, 2-24 Exchange Street East, Liverpool L2 3PQ
  • Queens Dock, Liverpool L74 4AA
  • College Street, St Helens WA10 1TN

Buildings to be vacated from early 2009 onwards:

  • Birchen House, 1 Canning Street, Birkenhead L41 6QS
  • Graeme House, Derby Square, Liverpool L2 7XS
  • Norwich House, Water Street, Liverpool L2 8XS
  • Regian House, James Street, Liverpool L75 1AA
  • Kingsway House, Caldwell Road, Widnes WA8 7ET

Manchester

Eight buildings will house the department’s future operations in the Manchester area, whilst ten offices are to be vacated from early 2009 onwards. Enquiry Centres will remain in, or near, their current location.

The buildings being retained are:

  • Stone Cross House, 21-27 Churchgate, Bolton BL1 1YA
  • Albert Bridge House, 1 Bridge Street, Manchester M60 9AF
  • Building 302, Manchester Airport
  • Westminster House, 11 Portland Street, Manchester M1 3HU
  • Custom House, Furness Quay, Salford, M50 3XX
  • Ralli Quays, 3 Stanley Street, Salford M60 9LA
  • Trinity Bridge House, 2 Dearmans Place, Salford M3 5BA
  • Archer House, John Street, Stockport, Cheshire SK1 3EF

Buildings to be vacated from early 2009 onwards are:

  • 9-11 Minden Parade, Bury BL9 0QN
  • Boundary House, Cheadle Point, Cheadle, Cheshire SK8 2JZ
  • Boardman House, 60 Leigh Road, Leigh WN7 1NH
  • Wellesley House, 30 Wellington Road North, Stockport SK4 1EZ
  • Roberts House, 80 Manchester Road, Altrincham, WA14 4PT
  • Crown Buildings, 2 Booth Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, OL6 7PL
  • Phoenix House, 44 Union Street, Oldham OL1 1EP
  • Newgate House, Newgate, Rochdale, OL16 1XB
  • Anchorage 2, Anchorage Quay, Salford M50 3YF
  • Upper 5th Floor, The Royal Exchange, Market Street, Manchester M2 7FF

Preston and Blackpool

Eight buildings will house the department’s future operations in the Preston/Blackpool area and six offices are to be vacated beginning in early 2009. Enquiry Centres will remain in, or near, their current location.

The buildings being retained are:

  • Chaucer’s Walk, Furthergate Industrial Park, Blackburn BB1 3AF
  • Ryscar House, Faraday Way, Blackpool FY2 0JJ
  • Charles House, 8 Winckley Square, Preston PR1 3HY
  • Diadem House, 2 The Pavilions, Portway, Preston PR2 2GN
  • Guild Centre, Lords Walk, Preston PR1 1RA
  • St Mark’s House, St Mary’s Street, Preston PR1 5LL
  • St Mary’s House, St Mary’s Street, Preston PR1 5LL
  • Unicentre, Lords Walk, Preston PR1 1DH

Buildings to be vacated from early 2009 onwards:

  • Mexford House, Mexford Avenue, Blackpool FY2 0XB
  • Petros House, Lytham St Anne’s
  • Cop Lane, Penwortham, Preston PR1 0SA
  • Castle House, Eastgate, Accrington BB5 6AA
  • Lingmell House, Water Street, Chorley PR7 1EJ
  • Dukes House, 34 Hoghton Street, Southport PR9 ORJ

As I have set out above, we are maintaining face-to-face services in our Enquiry Centres in all of these locations, and of course we will be continuing with our usual programme of audit checks.

We know that some members of the agent community continue to find it useful to have a working relationship with locally-based tax officials, despite their business portfolio being handled by other HMRC offices around the country and the availability of our centralised contact centre service. For those agents, we acknowledge that the prospect of our moving staff to a different location may initially cause concern. However, we are now looking at a number of ways we might improve our services to this important customer group, in particular by more accurate targeting of our website content site to their needs and by reviewing the handling of calls by our service centres.

If you want any further information about our Regional Review Programme please contact Colin Kirk on Tel 020 7438 4224, or Paul Smyth on Tel 020 7438 8405.