Recommendation 14

Following our April 2018 session we had questioned whether the regional office deals HMRC had struck would offer sufficient flexibility to cope if plans did not work out as intended.38 In our 2020 evidence session HMRC told us that it expects to have more 31 C&AG’s Report, Figure 18 32 Qq 66, 69 33 HMRC, Annual Report and Accounts 2019 to 2020, HC 891, November 2020 34 Qq 68, 70–71 35 Committee of Public Accounts, The HMRC Estate, Fifty-third Report of Session 2016–17, HC 891 ,29 April 2017; Committee of Public Accounts, HMRC’s Performance in 2016–17, Twelfth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 456, 12 January 2018; Committee concerns raised in the April 2018 evidence session summarised in letter dated 6 June 2018 from Chair to HMRC Permanent Secretary 36 Q69 37 Letter dated 3 December from HMRC Permanent Secretary to Chair 38 Committee concerns raised in the April 2018 evidence session summarised in Letter dated 6 June 2018 from Chair to HMRC Permanent Secretary HMRC performance 2019–20 13 flexible working arrangements for its staff in the future, which will reduce its need for office space. It acknowledged that many more of its staff are likely to spend, say, two or three days a week working at home if they want to, and that this would affect the amount of office space it needed. However, the Department explained that in general its regional centres are “government hubs” that provide a great deal of flexibility in terms of who occupies them. For example, HMRC told us that it currently lends some of its estate in Croydon to the Department for Work & Pensions.39