Bank is looking to lower costs as it prepares for privatisation, despite George Osborne delaying sale of remaining shares to public

Lloyds Banking Group is cutting 1,755 jobs and closing 29 branches as part of a plan by its chief executive, António Horta-Osório, to cut costs as he prepares the bank for privatisation.



Staff at Britain’s biggest retail bank were told about the job losses, which cover large parts of the group, on Wednesday, but union officials said they hoped that the reductions could be achieved by voluntary means.

The bank said it would add 170 new jobs in retail and commercial banking and in its legal team, taking the net figure for job losses to about 1,585.

Horta-Osório is continuing with the cost reduction programme even though the chancellor, George Osborne, has admitted that he cannot press on with a sale of the government’s remaining Lloyds shares to the public because of market turmoil, which has knocked the bank’s share price.



The posts that are being axed are part of the 9,000 job cuts announced by Horta-Osório in 2014, when he said that a need to “digitise” the business would also result in the closure of 200 branches. According to officials at the Accord union, which has 23,000 members, about 60% of those cuts have now been announced.



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Lloyds, which operates under a number of brands, will close 19 Lloyds, seven Bank of Scotland and three Halifax branches in June. The bank employs about 77,000 people and has more than 2,000 branches.

Accord officials said: “This is a difficult time for those affected. However, Accord’s agreement with the bank means that no employee will be redundant other than through voluntary means. We will provide advice and support to colleagues who will be impacted by the branch closures.”



The roles that are going include 140 at assistant branch manager level, and follow the 1,000 job cuts announced in November. Accord said it was concerned that workers who remained at Lloyds would be forced to take on more work, as positions continue to be scrapped.



The union told its members: “While the initial focus will be on the individuals who are impacted by the announcement, Accord will also be engaging with Lloyds regarding the impact on those who will remain with the bank.

“Resources are already stretched and we are concerned that further reductions in staffing levels could exacerbate the existing problems in relation to security, keyholding, booking holidays, absence etc. There comes a point where it is not possible to achieve more with less; only less can be achieved with less.”

Lloyds said: “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.”



Lloyds cut 45,000 jobs after it bought HBOS in a rescue deal during the financial crisis in 2008.

The government owned 43% of Lloyds after it bailed out the bank in 2008, but that stake has been reduced to less than 10% through a series of sales to institutional investors.

With stock markets in a volatile state because of worries about the global economy, the Treasury will wait until after Easter to launch the Lloyds share sale.