DWP office set for closure

The Tories have turned their back on Oldham and left it’s levelling up promise in tatters.

News that Phoenix House, the Department for Work and Pensions office on Union Street in the centre of Oldham is set to close marks a long and disgraceful programme of removing jobs from the town, at a time when we need support to recover from the pandemic.

There has not been any consultation with local Members of Parliament and follows on from the closure of the HMRC tax office in the same building only a few years ago. According to the PCS union, 168 jobs will be lost as a result of the latest round of cuts.

Taken together it shows a disregard for the town, and the importance of town centre workers supporting the local high street, spending money at lunch time and after work.

So far, the town has seen the closure of the Magistrates Court, the County Court, numerous police stations and custody cells, the HMRC tax office and now the DWP office. Together taking hundreds of workers out of the town.

Just this week it was reported that there were 5,270 unemployed claimants in Oldham West and Royton constituency alone, which was 7.9% of the population aged 16-64. This was 1,665 higher than March 2020, before the first UK lockdown began.

Worst still, the work previously done at Phoenix House will be moved to St Peters Square in Manchester City Centre, where office rents are some of the highest in the region.

The Tories never put towns like Oldham first, they have an agenda to strip back public services to the bone and drive a race to the bottom on living standards and quality of life for working people.