190 jobs to go in Leicester as bank closes call centre

Nearly 200 bank jobs could be lost when a call centre closes its doors.

Lloyds Banking Group, which was recently bailed out with billions of pounds in taxpayers' cash, has announced plans to shed 5,000 jobs across the country.

Among the offices affected will be the collections and recoveries office in Princess Street West in the city centre, with the loss or redeployment of 190 jobs.

The work of the call centre will be moved to other Lloyds Banking Group call centres in the north.

Members of staff at the call centre said they were shocked by the announcement.

One 30-year-old employee and father-of-one said: "We were told officially on Tuesday – everything stopped and they made the announcement.

"With things the way they are, I will need to find something else quickly. You can't live on just one wage when you've got a mortgage and you're paying out £700 to £800 month."

Another 34-year-old employee said he had two children to support. He said: "It has left everyone feeling very upset and angry.

"Now it's time to look out for ourselves and to show the company the same level of loyalty it has shown to us."

A company spokesman said the bank would do its best to find the staff new jobs. He said: "The collections and recoveries office in Princess West Street is part of our group operations function. It's being moved to a call site in Chester, with other roles moving back to our head office in Leeds. There are 190 roles that will be affected.

"The company's focus is redeployment and we will be seeing if there are any other Lloyds sites or other companies in the Leicester area where there are vacancies."

Elsewhere, the bank will be shedding jobs in offices around the UK, with West Yorkshire and Belfast also hit hard.

Lloyds Banking Group was formed by the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS – the group that owns Halifax and the Bank of Scotland. But since the merger in September last year, the "superbank" has struggled.

Bad loans on HBOS's books led to the Government pumping in £17 billion and taking a 43% stake in the bank.

A further Government bailout of £13.5 billion for Lloyds Banking Group was agreed last week.

The Leicester call centre was formerly owned by HBOS.

Peter Gallagher from Accord, the union representing former HBOS employees, said: "It is a devastating blow for both the people that work there and for Leicester as it loses a major employer.

"People are understandably unhappy and very worried.

"We will be working with Lloyds Banking Group between now and next September to try and redeploy staff.

"Employees have now got a schedule that takes them through to the end of next September so some of the uncertainty they have had since September last year has lifted.

"While it's not good news, at least they know what the future holds."

The news comes as the latest jobless figures were announced.

At the end of October, 25,222 people were on job seekers allowance in Leicestershire.

The figure is 337 more than last month and twice as much as it was in June 2008.