Halifax bank branch in Sowerby Bridge to be shut down

More than 1,200 jobs are being axed at Lloyds Banking Group under plans to shut another 49 branches, in a further blow to Britain’s high streets.

One of branches will be the Halifax bank in Wharf Street.

The banking giant said 1,230 jobs will be cut across its branch network and some central functions as part of the move. It said it hopes to redeploy affected staff where possible, with compulsory redundancies a “last resort”.

The group is also creating 925 roles elsewhere in the business and insisted the overall job losses would total 305.

Lloyds pledged to expand its mobile branch network by another seven to 36 to help offset the branch closures. The branches will close across its Lloyds and Halifax banking brands between July and October this year.

A spokesman for Lloyds said: “These branch closures are in response to changing behaviour and the reduced number of transactions being made in branches.”

On the job cuts, he 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.

“Since 2011, over 90 per cent of role reductions have been achieved through a combination of natural attrition, redeployment and voluntary redundancy.”