1,500 staff and 29 Lloyds branches axed in latest cuts

More than 1,500 jobs are going at Lloyds

The bank, 9% owned by the taxpayer, said it would try to achieve the cuts through voluntary redundancy, with compulsory lay-offs being a “last resort”.

A union leader said staff in Lloyds Banking Group have been living with the worry of redundancy since 2009, adding that the job losses were not over yet.

The bank said the job losses were part of its three-year strategy, adding: “The reductions are within retail, group operations, commercial banking, consumer finance, legal and group finance.

“The net total is inclusive of 170 new roles that will be created across retail, commercial banking and legal.

“Lloyds Banking Group is committed to working through these changes with employees in a careful and sensitive way. All affected employees have been briefed by their line manager today.

“The Group’s policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge within the Group. Where it is necessary for employees to leave the company, it will look to achieve this by offering voluntary redundancy. Compulsory redundancies will always be a last resort.”

Ged Nichols, general secretary of the Accord union, told the Press Association: “The job security situation in UK banks is getting ever more difficult. Staff in Lloyds Banking Group have been living with this worry since 2009 and the job losses aren’t over yet.

“We and Lloyds Banking Group have a good record of managing these issues through turnover and voluntary redundancy but it gets progressively more difficult.

“While the initial focus will be on the individuals who are impacted by the announcement, Accord is also concerned about the impact on those who will stay with the bank.

“Resources are already stretched and further reductions in staffing levels could exacerbate existing problems in relation to security and other matters.

“There comes a point where it is not possible to achieve more with less and banks will have to make changes accordingly or customer service will suffer.”

Lloyds said it will be closing 29 branches during June.

Around 5,500 of the 9,000 planned job losses have now been announced.