The bank is cutting 150 staff at its administration centre in Manors Business Park, Benton, Newcastle, as part of restructuring that will see the closure of a further three offices nationwide, with total job losses of nearly 1,000.
The move will effectively remove any Lloyds Banking Group presence in Newcastle, with only its call centre in Sunderland remaining in the North East. It is the latest in a long-line of job cuts at the bank since it merged with Halifax Bank of Scotland Group three years ago. Other sites to close include those in Dudley in the West Midlands, Romford in Greater London and Scunthorpe.
Unions have called the decision a “devastating blow” for Newcastle. Steve Tatlow, assistant general secretary of Lloyds Trade Union, said: “This latest announcement is a real kick in the teeth for Newcastle, particularly after Lloyds also closed a call centre in the city around eight years ago and moved all the jobs to India. They could quite easily pull those jobs back to the UK – they would be perfect for Newcastle.
“This time, the jobs won’t be sent to India, they’ll be sent to other sites in the UK. “But that doesn’t help the Newcastle workers, most of them will have no option but to face compulsory redundancy. “The bank has been bailed out by the taxpayer and we’ve all had to pay for the bank to survive and for them to do this is just ludicrous.
“The bank still has a call centre in Sunderland but this closure will remove the group’s presence from Newcastle. They used to have offices in Gateshead and near the A1M but it feels that they are gradually dismantling their presence in the North East.”