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<p>HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) established a clear set of eight location principles
to determine the location of its regional centres. These were:</p><ul><li>· Sustainable
large sites – having the capacity to hold all HMRC’s requirements for the region in
a single building, ideally accommodating no less than 1,500 staff.</li><li>· Talent
pipeline – offering access to a pipeline of future talent, with the skills HMRC needs,
for example, close to universities and colleges.</li><li>· Single location career
paths – offering the chance to build careers and skills to a senior level in a number
of professions in a single location without the need to move.</li><li>· Catchment
for a mix of business activity – the right grouping of existing teams to allow a diverse
mix of business activities to be brought together in the same place.</li><li>· Digital
infrastructure – having high capacity, high speed digital infrastructure and mobile
networks to benefit customers and staff.</li><li>· Facilities for HMRC’s people –
access to good housing, schools and recreational facilities, so HMRC can recruit and
retain staff.</li><li>· Market rates- delivering good value for money in property
and labour costs.</li><li>· Robust long-term infrastructure – locations with the right
infrastructure for the long term such as strong transport links within the region
and nationally.</li></ul><p>HMRC values its people and wants as many as possible to
move with the work to the regional centres. In addition to the eight location principles,
it looked at where its staff live and initially assessed more than 40 of its existing
medium to large sized locations against the principles as possible regional centres.
These included: Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Blackburn, Bolton, Bradford, Bristol,
Cardiff, Chatham, Chesterfield, Dover, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Grimsby, Harwich,
Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Maidstone, Manchester, Newcastle, Northampton,
Nottingham, Peterborough, Peterlee, Preston, Plymouth, Reading, Redruth, Sheffield,
Shipley, Solent (including Portsmouth), Southend-on-Sea, Stockton-on –Tees, Taunton,
Telford, Workington, Worthing, Wrexham. For areas where a particular town was part
of a conurbation, the conurbation was assessed as part of those listed above, for
example Sunderland and Washington as part of Newcastle.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC’s Programme
Business Case has received approval from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.</p>
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