Northern Rock to cut 650 jobs this year

Katherine Griffiths & ,}

Northern Rock will cut up to 650 jobs by the finish of the year as piece the expostulate to cringe costs prior to a sale behind to the in isolation sector.

The redundancies follow 1,500 pursuit waste in 2008 after the bank was nationalised. The ultimate cuts, that will be accompanied by the close of the last income grant intrigue to destiny contributions, were described by the kinship Unite as devastating.

Northern Rocks centres in Newcastle and Sunderland will bear the brunt of the ultimate measures, with posts going from opposite the business.

Northern Rocks great bank, that is obliged for new lending, and the item government company, that is using off the behind book, will each be hit.

Unite criticised the move, observant that the bank had cut twenty per cent of the workforce overall. Rob MacGregor, Unite inhabitant officer, said: Since 2008 Northern Rock has marked down the employees by over 2,000, nonetheless staff are being told currently that the commercial operation has not restructured amply to be cost effective. There are right away critical questions about how change, in this critical North East formed monetary institution, is being managed.

Gary Hoffman, Northern Rocks arch executive, conceded that the redundancies were unsettling for staff but pronounced that they were required to broach worth to taxpayers. The bank will come in a 90-day conference with the kinship and employees.

The Newcastle-based bank is on a cost-cutting expostulate to have it commercial to a in isolation buyer. The pursuit cuts simulate that it is a most not as big operation than prior to the nationalisation, essay one fifth of the debt commercial operation compared with the peak.

Mr Hoffman added: We contingency enter into the staffing turn to compare the not as big distance of the business, enlarge potency and revoke the cost base.

The bank pronounced that it would try to keep mandatory redundancies to a smallest and affianced to work with internal groups, such as One NorthEast, to yield await to those affected.