YORK’S last tax office is to close in January, with the loss to the city of 30 remaining jobs.

Jobs are also at risk at Crawshaw Butchers’ store at Clifton Moor after the company announced yesterday it was going into administration.

But there is better news from the Coppergate Centre, where Danish retailer Flying Tiger Copenhagen is set to move into the centre’s one vacant unit, and from Coney Street, where new toy shop The Entertainer is to open soon and has begun recruiting sales staff.

HMRC employed almost 200 people in York ten years ago, at two offices in St Saviourgate and Piccadilly.

The former closed some years ago and there is now only Swinson House in Piccadilly, where about 30 members of staff still worked at the end of September.

This is now due to close in January, with staff able to transfer to Leeds, where a new regional centre is planned.

An HMRC spokesman said this centre had not yet opened, and so staff transferring from York would move to an existing HMRC office in Leeds.

He said HMRC was ‘transforming to create a tax authority fit for the future, increasing tax revenue and improving customer service, by creating 13 new modern regional centres in locations where the majority of our staff are already based.’

He said: “We are supporting our people in York relocating to the Leeds Regional Centre and in trying to find alternative solutions for those that can’t.

“We want to keep as many staff as possible and in 2015 our planning showed that the majority of our workforce would either work in a regional centre or see out their career in an existing HMRC office.”

But the PCS union’s general secretary Mark Serwotka claimed that the office closure programme across the country was going to reduce HMRC’s ability to clamp down on tax avoidance and evasion, and would also take jobs out of the local economy.

“Many staff forced to relocate to Leeds will not be able to make the commute from York and ultimately they will leave the service,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, Crawshaws, which only opened its York store last year, has revealed that it attempted to raise emergency funding to stay afloat but was unsuccessful.

It said it did not have sufficient cash resources for the required restructuring, and the board had decided to place the company into administration, with the purpose of seeking buyers.The move threatens 600 jobs nationwide.

At the Coppergate Centre, a unit recently vacated by the Fenwick gift shop will be occupied by Flying Tiger, which will sell products including home decor, children’s toys, gadgets and gifts when it opens on Friday November 9.

Centre manager Pippa Unwin said it was the ‘perfect brand to complement our existing customer base.’