MILLIONS of pounds of taxpayers cash is being wasted on upgrading a tax office that is to be closed within a decade, union campaigners claim.
Staff are now being transferred from the Plaza Tower, a central location in East Kilbride, to an upgraded Queensway House, on the town's outskirts at an alleged cost of £8 million.
However, the move to the revamped premises is despite plans by HMRC to shift all 2700 staff out of the South Lanarkshire town completely to a Glasgow regional centre by 2026
The PCS civil service union says its has evidence that taxpayers face an £8m bill to pay for the upgraded office in East Kilbride, that will close anyway.
The union's National Officer Lynn Henderson attacked the move, saying: “This is another example of a badly-managed department making bad decisions which lead to bad outcomes.
"Its costly and chaotic to move workers to an office only two miles away. Not only do the public end up footing the bill for the logistics of such a move, the people of East Kilbride will be dealing with a costly impact to their local economy.
"It is astounding that this plan is being executed in the midst of Brexit turmoil. By their own admission, HMRC needs more workers and more stability.
"All of PCS’s research on the office closure plan shows that there is only loss to the service: a loss of skill, money, time, jobs and community links.
"We’ll add this example to our growing list of reasons why HMRC must halt their closure programme”.
Last night, SNP MP Dr Lisa Cameron said the plan was pointless and a waste of public money.
Cameron, the member for East Kilbride, has lodged a series of questions at Westminster, challenging Chancellor Philip Hammond about the move.
She said: "I'm very concerned and troubled that the UK Government is not protecting the public pound, never mind defending HMRC jobs in East Kilbride.
"I have submitted parliamentary questions to the Chancellor on whether the wider taxpayers' interest has been protected, which appears extremely unlikely to be the case."
An HMRC spokesman confirmed the plan to move the tax workers from one East Kilbride location to another before eventual closure.
He said: "We have confirmed that Queensway House in East Kilbride will remain open as a transitional site until 2025-26, and Plaza Tower will stay open until 2020-21.
"This will spread the change over a number of years, while improving customer service and modernising how HMRC work."
The spokesman maintained the opening of the Glasgow centre would deliver savings for taxpayers.
“HMRC is transforming into a more efficient, higher-skilled organisation," he said, "offering modern digital services, through 13 regional centres, five specialist sites, and seven transitional sites.
“Moving to regional centres will save more than £300m up to 2025 and we will deliver annual cash savings of £74m in 2025-26, rising to around £90m by 2028.”
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