June Update

A collage of some of the supporting photos we have received / taken

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but things are moving on a daily basis, making it very difficult to choose the point at which to give an update.

Currently, after further political interventions by John Thurso and Danny Alexander, HMRC are actively investigating the possibility of alternative, cheaper, office accommodation offered by Highlands & Islands Enterprise.

Issues remain, however, around the work that would be done in these new premises, as thanks to a Recruitment Freeze over the past five years, HMRC's Compliance section (the people who chase up tax dodgers) say they are worried about succession planning.

Campaigners have highlighted that this is, in effect, a vicious circle - the department decided to close Wick Office, so they didn't recruit anyone new.  Because there's nobody new, they believe they have to close the office.  The Wick Wants Work Campaign has therefore drawn up a petition at http://wickwants.epetitions.net/, which we would ask you both to sign and to share widely with friends and colleagues in support of the Campaign to bring work to Wick. 

With a bit of lateral thinking, the succession solution that Wick Wants Work Campaigners see as the obvious one is to recruit new blood into HMRC Wick - Unemployment in the area is high, and there is a skilled potential workforce in the area who would love the chance to get involved in closing the Tax Gap and working to create a better society. £900 million is being reinvested into HMRC Compliance work, and there is no reason why a tiny fraction of this could not be invested in Caithness to succession-proof Wick.

While Wick Wants Work Campaigners are advancing these arguments, however, the sword of Damocles hangs over the Office.  At the start of June, Voluntary Redundancy offers were made to staff under the terms of the new Civil Service Compensation Scheme.

The new scheme, which was imposed against the wishes of staff by an act of Parliament, is structured in such a way as to penalise staff for failure to volunteer for redundancy - and, even if the should choose voluntary redundancy, is worth less than 2/3 of the entitlement of many under the former scheme.


A further meeting is being arranged with John Thurso MP, and Wick will be high on the agenda when the PCS Union holds a reception for MPs on the 6th of July.

Your support thus far has been invaluable, and we hope you will sign the petition at http://wickwants.epetitions.net/ and share the link as widely as possible to add to the pressure on HMRC to commit to supporting the Caithness economy.