FEARS have been raised over the future of one of the region’s largest employers.

Steve Ryan heads the PCS union at the tax office in Ellice Way, Wrexham, which has more than 400 staff.

Under Chancellor George Osborne’s spending review Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) must make savings of 15 per cent.

Mr Ryan said the announcement had caused staff in Wrexham to be “really worried for their jobs”.

He said: “This announcement will not only affect 13,000 jobs in HMRC but we know that management will also be looking at the estate, which means offices.

“A number of our offices on the North Wales coast have already closed and we have real fears about the future of Wrexham.

“Much of the work done here is on processing, which involves dealing with correspondence from taxpayers.

“But there are some very big tax offices in Liverpool and Manchester which also deal with this. There are 400 jobs here and I believe the majority of them are at risk.”

Mr Ryan, who is a member of the PCS Wales committee, said the union would fight job losses.

He added: “Basically, I think there will be industrial action.


“But we know from the rally we had in Wrexham town centre on Wednesday evening that there is quite a bit of sympathy from the public.”

A spokesperson for HMRC said: “Now we know how much money we have to run the department we can start looking at staff numbers.

“We will put together plans for all of our change activity and expect to be able to give staff more information early in the New Year.

“We will do everything we can to mitigate the impact of redundancies. That means compulsory redundancy will only ever be a last resort.”