Government blows £144,000 on professional voice artist for tax helpline

Rishi Sunak’s HMRC has blown £144,000 on a professional voice artist to read out thousands of messages for the Government’s Tax helpline.

HM Revenue and Customs signed a three-year contract with with Mazaru, a London-based agency - to provide “top notch” recordings, and the same voice actor every time.

In contract documents, HMRC said: “We would like to retain the services of the same Voice Artist to ensure consistency of customer experience” and “continuity in HMRC tone.”

For the proposed requirement of 1,500 messages, each up to 100 words long, the contract will cost a minimum of almost £100 per message - or a pound for every word spoken.

Deputy Labour Leader Angela Rayner branded the contract an “obscene waste of taxpayer’s money shows a completely out-of-touch Chancellor.”

As Chancellor Rishi Sunak is ultimately responsible for HMRC spending (PA)

The contract refers to the female artist in question as ‘Sam’, and states that “the supplier must use Sam as the dedicated voice for all HMRC recordings.”

‘Sam’ is required to record messages at short notice, in case of government policy changing - or to respond to events like the Covid pandemic or Brexit.

And over the Christmas holidays, the firm are allowed to use a “stand-in” - as long as ‘Sam’ re-records them in January.

“If Sam is unavailable”, the contract reads, “the supplier must provide a voice artist with a similar voice to carry out the recordings.

“Once Sam has returned, the supplier will re-record the messages recorded by the stand in voice artist at their own cost, using Sam.”

Mazaru, the agency, also employ staff in roles such as ‘Happiness Ninja’, ‘Tone Maven’ and ‘Head of Customer Wow’.

HMRC demanded “the studio production and post-production must include recording, editing file formatting and pre-delivery quality checks to ensure top-notch audio quality.”

Ms Rayner added: “When small business owners ring those lines over the coming weeks, what they’ll want is urgent help with the crippling effects of the Treasury’s tax hikes, not some professional voice artist telling them where they are in the queue.

“This is yet another example of why we need Labour's independent Office for Value for Money in place to crack down on the disgusting amounts of public money being wasted on vanity projects by this Conservative Government.

“Labour wants to help families struggling with the cost of living crisis instead, that is the difference."