Lloyds Banking Group announced plans to cut a further 2,100 jobs on Tuesday in a move that has been condemned by unions as an “astonishing, systematic slashing of staff”.

The latest cull is the biggest reduction in the workforce since the bank was created by the takoever of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in January. It lifts the rate at which it is cutting jobs to 600 a week over the past 2½ months and takes the total cull by Lloyds since it acquired HBOS, and was bailed out by the taxpayer, to more than 7,000 jobs.

Analysts believe that thousands more jobs will go among the joint 140,000 workforce as Lloyds strives to hit its target of £1.5 billion in annual cost savings.

The latest cuts include 150 posts in West Yorkshire, 100 in Birmingham and 350 jobs in Scotland. The redundancies will be implemented over the next three years and will be in processing and the wholesale banking division. Lloyds said that 700 of the cuts would be achieved by laying-off contract and agency staff and by people leaving voluntarily. It said that the move followed plans to streamline its group and wholesale operations.

The bank also sought to appease unions by pledging not to move any more permanent roles offshore.

Rob MacGregor, national officer at Unite, said that the union had been “astonished” by the Lloyds decision. “As a taxpayer-supported organisation, real questions need to be asked as to how far this bank can be allowed to go in this systematic slashing of staff,” he said. Morale at the bank was now “truly low, as employees are in a permanent state of anxiety as they see their employer announce hundreds of job losses every week”.

The bank said that all affected staff had been briefed yesterday and added that Unions had been consulted before the announcement.

Mark Fisher, director of group operations at Lloyds, said: “By bringing the businesses together, we will be better placed for the future. Regrettably, some of our colleagues will be affected by our plans.”

In recent weeks Lloyds has also announced 1,660 job cuts from closing Cheltenham & Gloucester branches and changes in the personal loans business, 985 job cut from the car finance unit, 625 jobs lost through the merger of the corporate and small business lending units and 530 jobs lost in its retail division.

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