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Nearly 100 jobs set to be axed at HomeServe

HomeServe, the Walsall-based home repairs and insurance group, has revealed plans to cut nearly 100 jobs across the business.

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Around 1,000 people work at HomeServe's Cable Drive headquarters in Walsall. Some of the back office staff at the site are among 100 now facing redundancy across the business

All 98 jobs are described as 'support' roles, rather than repair engineers or call centre staff.

The job cuts are planned across the Walsall, Preston and Banbury offices, where HomeServe employs around 1,800 of its 3,000-strong UK workforce.

The job cuts are said to be due to a restructuring of the company's back office roles. Staff were told the news on Monday, when a 30 day redundancy consultation process began.

The company, which employs around 1,000 at its Cable Drive headquarters in Walsall, said it was still recruiting for gas and plumbing engineers and for call centre staff.

In a statement, a company spokesperson said: "We've begun consultation on a small number of managerial and support roles that are at risk of redundancy.

"The decision affects fewer than 100 roles across our three main sites of Walsall, Preston and Banbury, which have a combined total of just over 1,800 people.

"These proposals will have no impacts on frontline and customer-facing roles and we continue to recruit for frontline areas."

The group's most recent set of trading figures, for the first half of its financial year, showed HomeServe continuing to attract customers in the UK, Europe and in its fast-growing US operations.

Revenue was up 15 per cent to £366 million and it also completed a £54 million deal to buy trades website Checkatrade.

At that stage, in November the company's UK arm, HomeServe Membership, had 2.2 million customers but had been overtaken by the US business, which had grown to 3.1 million customers.

At the end of last year it struck a deal with the AA to take over its home emergency services operation, adding 70,000 customers and recruiting the AA's 70 plumbing and gas engineers to the 1,000-strong HomeServe engineering team.