DORSET employer Nationwide is planning to axe around 450 jobs in what has been described as the most significant loss of jobs at the building society for many years.

The society employs around 1,200 people in the Bournemouth area, including around 900 at its administration centre in Richmond Hill.

The 450 planned job losses include mortgage adviser roles across the country, as well as the cutting back of central support functions mostly based at its Swindon headquarters.

A Nationwide spokesperson said: “Our strategy is to give members greater value, better products and a distinctive customer experience. To do this our systems and operations must be best-in-class and we need to be more agile and efficient.

“We are streamlining some of our central, non-member facing teams which will enable us to increase investment in the value and service we provide our members. We have worked hard to keep the number of affected colleagues to a minimum and expect around 450 to leave the Society. We are ensuring we provide the right support for those affected.”

Tim Rose, general secretary of the Nationwide Staff Group Union (NSGU), said around 160 mortgage adviser roles all over the country were at risk from the society’s decision to withdraw from the market in mortgages for the over-55s.

“Most of the other departments are central departments – marketing, HR, finance – and most of those are in Swindon,” he said.

In a message to members, he said: “The proposed changes will have an impact on over 1,350 employees, with approximately 960 being placed at risk of redundancy, potentially resulting in around 450 job losses.

“Although change programmes, with redundancies, have been an ongoing feature of life at Nationwide, this represents the most significant loss of jobs for many years.

“NGSU is extremely disappointed at the potential scale of redundancies. We are surprised by how the organisation finds itself in a position of needing to reduce duplication and bureaucracy, when members will be well aware that efficiency and cost control initiatives have been an ongoing and constant feature of the society’s strategy and operational priorities for a number of years.

“However, we acknowledge that the controls to restrict recruitment, in place since the summer, have helped to reduce the number of roles at risk.

“Although our experience of change programmes suggests that some impacted employees will welcome the chance to leave Nationwide and pursue new opportunities, with a period of security provided by a severance package, many will be extremely anxious about their future, particularly at a time of economic uncertainty and cost of living pressures.”