Lloyds Bank pulls out of Handbridge centre in Chester

Feb 24 2010 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

Lloyds Banking

LLOYDS Banking Group has finally admitted it is vacating sites at Handbridge and Chester Business Park.

In January the company acknowledged it had too much office space for the 2,500-strong workforce but said “no decisions had been reached”on the future of the buildings.

This was despite claims by staff that managers had communicated the changes at a series of briefings.

Mark Elliott, head of media relations, said Capital House and Bridge House at the Handbridge base were being vacated along with The Foundation training centre on the business park.

Many of the changes result from Lloyds’ takeover of HBOS which has seen a reduction in the size of the workforce by cutting duplication between the two companies.

Mr Elliott said: “In a general sense, the redundancies are about bringing two teams together across Lloyds and HBOS.

“There is no need for two sets of computer people and two sets of processing and payments people so we are bringing these teams into one and trying to ensure we have the best people.”

Mr Elliott said five bases would remain in Charterhall House, Tower House and Premier House, off Hoole Lane, Douglas House in Foregate Street and Weaver Street.

Some roles were disappearing from Chester while others were being created.For example, there was some positive news before Christmas when it was announced 340 jobs would be created by the end of 2010 as part of a shake-up.

These will be in administration, IT, collections and recoveries. Some of the extra jobs earmarked for Chester will be redeployed from locations in Yorkshire, home to the Halifax, owned by Lloyds, but other jobs will be entirely new roles.