The Harwich and Manningtree Standard is not a usual source here, but a news report it covered seems highly pertinent in the light of the National Audit Office commentary on the preparedness, or otherwise, of the UK for a no deal Brexit. As they note:
Concerns have been raised about Harwich's HM Revenue and Customs office being turned into houses while there are still uncertainties about the impact Brexit will have on ports.
Garry Calver, Harwich councillor, said: “We expressed great concern from the very beginning at the closure and sale of Harwich's Customs House before it was known what the impact Brexit may have on the port.
“It's clear now that these concerns were justified and there is great worry at how our port will be affected in a no deal situation.”
The customs house was scrapped as part of a major overhaul of the service which will see the eventual closure of all HM Revenue and Customs offices in the East of England.
Work will be transferred to one super site in Stratford, east London, with the South-East also being served by a centre in Croydon.
Harwich is one of the ports that will supposedly take more traffic if Dover becomes blocked after Brexit. It's Customs House has, however, been closed and sold as part of the HMRC rationalisation plan to which I objected for years. So now a crisis in the port will be managed from Stratford in east London, or Croydon in south London. It doesn't take a moment to work out how well that will go.
I argued throughout this whole closure programme that tax is not some remote, technical exercise but is instead a front line issue where government and people need to interact where people are. I think we are just about to find out how right that argument was.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
I actually love to see things like this.
Why?
Because it shows yet again that we are just not ready for BREXIT. Even if you are a Leaver you must surely understand that if something has to be ended then you bring it to an end properly?
We need more time. Leaving is going to cause adjustment issues anyway. But leaving messily? That’s just not acceptable. It will make things worse.
Rational Leavers would be asking for more time.
So where are you?
Rational leavers have no say. An irrational government is in charge.
When we had a nationwide network of Local VAT Offfices and Customs offices which although maybe not universally loved by the trading population you had local knowledge and traders also had the opportunity to speak face to face with someone from Customs and Excise and not have to spend hours hanging on the phone to get through to someone. It is utter folly to think you can control the taxes/duties from remote urban centres and just invites fraudulent and dishonest behaviour.
Agreed!
Od Codger says:
“… had the opportunity to speak face to face with someone from Customs and Excise and not have to spend hours hanging on the phone to get through to someone…..”
…to which I would add…….. that the ‘someone’ you might be fortunate enough to talk to, if you hang on long enough, is a call centre operative with minimal training who knows rock-all.
I recommend providing a home for a stray kitten and talking to that instead.
Agree entirely. My experience goes back to the days of the British Army of Occupation and rather later having Harwich as the port of choice for the continent and positively avoiding Dover. Moreover, I have long felt re the continent that a number of smaller, efficient ones along the East Coast was best. Of course the the government is unaware that there can be seasons called Winter from time to time which can affect transport and trade. Choice and flexibility make sense.
Well, it isn’t a HMRC office at the current time, so bringing an empty building into residential use seems as reasonable as any other use. After all, if it does turn out that we need to hire more staff to do port administration tasks, and they are not already living locally, then expanding the housing supply is what we want.
Ah, you say, but we may also need more office buildings. Other office buildings are available. Have you seen what’s happening on high streets with the closures of retail outlets, or looked at the ads for offices to let in East Suffolk? Ah, you might say, but the Port may need more offices to handle the expansion. That’s a private sector problem. Another ah, you might add, what about the local knowledge of the people who work in Customs – that ship has sailed I’m afraid, the building is already empty and the previous staff have left to pastures new after passing their knowledge on as all good public servants should.
After the event justification of a cock up is a skill you may well need next year
It still makes you look ridiculous, just in case you did not realise
I have a quick question. Will there be an analysis of the effect of the closure of HMRC Enquiry Centres in your next estimate of the tax gap? I’ll be disappointed if there isn’t.
No, because that is not the wat my methodology works
This government clearly couldn’t organise egg production in a henhouse without using Professor Fox as a consultant. They seem to have dissuaded our civil service too. The first question I’d want on a people’s ballot is now:
1. Do you think Brexit has exposed Westminster and its media hangers-on as completely incompetent and in need of urgent replacement?
The UK, of course, is already the major base for foreign tax swindles across the EU, which must be the ‘reason’ for shutting tax offices!
I don’t know about Prof. Fox but Dr. Fox is one of their lead ‘consultants’ – https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2018/10/liam-fox-s-american-friends
Basic import control policy examination
Question one
Take a point of entry, deprive it of staff and resources and increase traffic. Add to the mix extreme pressure to achieve the shortest possible transit time through any remaining regulatory procedures. Set this scenario against a background of regulatory control where internet trading resembles the wild west and in an environment where essential prescription pharmaceuticals are in short supply. On top of all this add anonymous suppliers of real and fake pharma based in the far east.
Predict the consequences and costs of failing to modify current policy.
Answers on the back of a fag packet to 10 Downing Street London SW1.
That would be a smuggled fag packet, of course….
An example of cost saving by centralising.
Network Rail decided to save money by closing the regional time-tabling centres and centralise the activity at Milton Keynes. But the poorly paid experienced staff would not relocate. Network Rail also decided to change to new software from Germany (the govenment knows every thing from overseas is better and cheeper) but after commitment to this change it was found very difficult to modify it for the UK. The manual visual system was abandoned and the skills lost with the staff. I am sure every one knows the consequences at the May timetable change which is sill not implemented and the services has still not recovered. On the positive side it has given jobs to German programmers, and of course the power-that-be can claim it will save money.
Utterly bizarre