Norwich Union Insurance is to create 100 jobs at its Leicester office over the next two years.

The Waterloo Way site's expansion was revealed as the company said it will close 22 offices and axe up to 1,800 jobs across the UK.

Bosses said Leicester, which employs 250 staff, was one of seven branches which would expand as part of the shake-up.

A spokesman said the city office would become one of its "centres of excellence", along with sites in Norwich, Perth, Manchester, Southend, Stretford, in Greater Manchester, and Bishopbriggs, in Lanarkshire.

"It will mean an increase of 100 jobs in Leicester," he said.

"This will come from a mixture of redeployments from elsewhere and new jobs."

He said all the jobs would be full-time.

"At the moment, we are spread across more than 22 sites, which is an inefficient way to run a business," said the spokesman. "Part of the reason for choosing these seven sites is we are looking at our future needs and must have the right skills and infrastructure in place."

Norwich Union's offices are in Waterloo House, which was built as a £2 million extension to neighbouring Regent House five years ago.

The office specialises in providing insurance for businesses. Norwich Union axed 119 staff at its claims and operation department at Regent House, in 2005.

Offices earmarked for closure include Birmingham, Sheffield, Cheadle and Leeds.

The company said after a series of mergers and acquisitions the business had become too large and complex.

Igal Mayer, chief executive of Norwich Union, said: "We are a very strong business that has grown over the years into a complex organisation. We want to deliver excellent, consistent and reliable customer service with market leading efficiency.

"To achieve this we will need to fundamentally simplify our business, consolidating our expertise into seven insurance centres of the future in the UK."

Norwich Union is owned by Aviva and employs 30,000 people.

The Unite Trade union described the closure plan as "devastating".

Source: This Is Leicestershire

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