Cheltenham & Gloucester branch closures put 1,500 jobs at risk

by Gill Montia

Story link: Cheltenham & Gloucester branch closures put 1,500 jobs at risk

Lloyds Banking Group is to close all remaining 164 branches of its Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) arm, the BBC has reported.

It is understood that the C&G mortgage lending and savings brand will remain but the move will put up to 1,500 jobs at risk.

When the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS was agreed last year analysts estimated that it could result in 30,000 job losses.

In an earlier round of cuts last week, the group announced that around 530 posts are to go across the UK.

A former Halifax processing centre near Chatham in Kent is closing with the loss of 210 jobs; 30 posts will disappear in London and the same number in Birmingham.

In April, 625 job losses, mainly in London and Edinburgh, were announced in connection a restructure of Lloyds’ wholesale banking division.

However, on a positive note, the 43% state-owned bank has just completed a successful fundraising and is expected to return around £2 billion of bailout capital to the Treasury.

Financial Services Secretary, Lord Myners, has described the news as “very real progress”.