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HMRC (Office Closures)

The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent case, and we can all make strong cases for not closing tax offices in our constituencies. Penzance, in my constituency, sits at the poorest end of the poorest region in the UK, so cutting jobs at the present time is not especially wise. The specific problem, however, is the bizarre way in which HMRC has treated its main asset: its human resource. The people in the Penzance office's compliance team, for example, provide the service with the type of stability that will not be replicated in the new centres, where job turnover will be much more rapid. That stability among HMRC's human resource is its greatest asset, and it is going to lose it.