RBS Group to close Leicester call centre losing 300 jobs

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group said it will not be renewing the lease on Bede House and plans to leave by December

About 300 jobs could be lost after the RBS Group said it plans not to renew the lease on a Leicester call centre.

The staff at Bede House on Western Boulevard, in Leicester, deal with calls and complaints for Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest customers.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group said it plans to vacate the building by December and compulsory redundancies would be kept to an "absolute minimum".

The Unite union said it was a "great disappointment" to the workforce.

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RBS leased Bede House for a two-year period with "no long-term plans" and has decided to make use of existing buildings, the BBC understands.

The banking group said: "We have been in discussions with the new owner of the building to understand their longer term view of the site.

"It is with regret we have made the decision to exit the site by the end of November 2018, which sadly means a number of our colleagues have been put at risk of redundancy."

In addition to the 300 jobs, some staff have been redeployed.

RBS added that customers would not be affected by the move.

Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest are subsidiaries of the RBS Group

Unite said it was working with RBS to minimise the number of compulsory job losses.

"RBS has identified some alternative roles in Southend which may be an appropriate alternative to redundancy," it said.

In May, RBS announced it was closing 162 branches across England and Wales, resulting in nearly 800 job losses.

The closures follow existing plans to shut 52 bank branches in Scotland and 197 NatWest branches.