Jobs blow as 280 go in Chester

Lloyds Banking Group says 280 staff will lose their jobs in Chester as part of the 4,500 redundancies announced on Wednesday.

The bank says all the staff affected have been told the news by their line manager.

Union officials say these latest cuts will mean Lloyds has made 20,000 people redundant since the start of last year.

Deputy general secretary of Accord, Clive Webster, said:

"Accord believes that today's announcement will be devastating for the hard-working and professional employees who are affected.

"Whilst we welcome the fact that Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) is cutting back on UK and offshore contractors rather than making redundant an even larger number of permanent staff, the fact is that after today's announcement around 2,750 UK taxpayers who currently work for LBG will lose their jobs and their income."

Lloyds said it had made "good progress" on its three-year integration programme which it said will be completed at the end of 2011, and was now putting in place its Group IT organisational structure for 2012.

A statement said:

"Lloyds Banking Group is committed to working through these changes with employees carefully and sensitively.

"All affected employees have been briefed by their line manager today.

"The group's union partners were consulted prior to this announcement and will continue to be consulted throughout the process."