HMRC blows £1m on ‘fancy’ office chairs despite staff working from home

HM Revenue and Customs has blown more than £1m on ‘fancy’ office chairs in three years, despite staff only being required to work in the office three days a week.

The tax authority also spent £59,000 on desks and £16,000 on storage units, spending figures obtained via a Freedom of Information request show.

Government policy allows all HMRC staff to work from home some of the time “provided they are able to do their job effectively from home and it fits with the department’s needs.” Guidelines state that civil servants must spend at least 60pc of their time in the office.

However, in May, Telegraph analysis found that around half of Whitehall staff were still working from home despite complaints over customer service.

Between January and March this year, just 53pc of civil servants went into the office in an average week, while waiting times to reach an adviser on the phone hit a record 25 minutes.

Joanna Marchong, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group, called on HMRC to “focus on delivering value for the taxpayer, rather than shelling out on fancy office furniture”.

She said: “Taxpayers will rightly question the exorbitant cost of refurbishing the taxman’s offices, particularly when the taxman so rarely seems to turn up.

“Instead of focusing funds on improving HMRC’s services, vast sums are being spent on the comfort of civil servants who can’t even be bothered to answer the phone.”

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former business secretary, said: “There is no point in spending a fortune on chairs if there is no one to sit upon them.”

HMRC has continued to embrace remote working rules introduced during the pandemic. A Telegraph investigation last year found that around 95pc of HMRC staff were working remotely at least one day in the working week – a figure higher than in the first national pandemic lockdown, when the proportion of HMRC staff working away from the office rose to 92pc.

Last month, it was revealed that tax office staff who were allowed to work from home lost thousands of mobile phones and laptops worth an estimated £1m over the past three years.

In the past decade, HMRC has tried to trim down its number of offices, moving from some 170 buildings in 2015 to around 40 last year. The taxman said the relocation programme saved £235m last year, and would make £907m in savings by 2031.

The tax office has also reduced its core workforce by 3.8pc, but the resultant rise in overtime has meant its overall wage bill has soared by £5.5m since last year, according to analysis by the Global Payroll Association.

An HMRC spokesman said: “We provide office furniture to allow civil servants to work effectively. Contracts to purchase office furniture are decided through open competition to get the best deal for taxpayers.”