ALL staff at Birkenhead’s two Land Registry offices have been offered voluntary redundancy, as the slump in the housing market continues to bite.
In total, 400 employees are affected by plans to merge the Old Market site, on Hamilton Street, with Land Registry’s Rosebrae office, to create a single Birkenhead office.
The organisation says it is looking to cull 1,000 positions out of a nationwide workforce of 8,000 and public services union, PCS, says this translates to 100 job cuts in Birkenhead – a quarter of employees.
Land Registry says it is reducing costs, “while retaining sufficient core skilled staff to process work once the market rises”.
The publicly funded body is responsible for registering land and providing title information when properties exchange hands, and says it has been hit by the housing market “slump”.
But PCS’s Birkenhead branch chairman, Dave Lunn, says the economy has simply provided “a convenient excuse” and warned that any attempt at compulsory redundancies would lead to “a dispute, not just with Land Registry, but across the entire Civil Service”.
A Land Registry spokesperson said: “Land Registry has no plans for any compulsory redundancies to enable the merger.
“Although there will be fewer Land Registry staff working in Birkenhead, we will still have a considerable presence in the area.”
Birkenhead Labour councillor, Jean Stapleton, expressed her shock at the news: “We’ve been trying to get new Civil Service jobs into Birkenhead for a number of years.
“This is very disappointing, to say the least.”
Mr Lunn said that, during previous lean times, work had been redirected towards housekeeping to ensure skilled staff were in place when busier times returned.
He said: “We don’t want to see anybody go, especially in Birkenhead when there are no other jobs around.
“One of our concerns is people will go, not because they want to, but because they are not confident about the future of Land Registry.
“The problem is it is still a public service but there is very much a market ethos coming in, so departmental management look upon it as a business.
“You have to hit targets, which are all pretty much artificial, and it has left people feeling very unsure about the future.
“We want to make sure services remain in the interests of the general public and not big business.”
The deadline for voluntary redundancy applications passed at the end of last week, and the Old Market Office will close on September 30 this year.
A spokesperson said: “Those accepting voluntary redundancy are being offered help such as retraining and on seeking alternative employment.”
