The tally of job losses at Lloyds Banking Group rose by a further 373 today when it announced a fresh wave of cuts in Brighton.

The cuts, described by unions as "alarming", take the total number of losses since its takeover of HBOS last year to more than 15,000. Today's announcement follow 300 redundancies last week, following a massive shake-up of its operation in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. The redundancies were particularly brutal, said unions, because the group was the largest private employer in the town.

Lloyds, which is 43 per cent owned by the British taxpayer, said today it would shut its Brighton call centre, which employs 535 people, in May next year. Though 162 of the roles will be redeployed the rest will be lost.

The bank insisted customer service would remain unaffected as the work, undertaken in Brighton, would be managed at its other call centres. A spokesman said: "We are confident we have the capacity in other call centres to manage the calls."

Rob MacGregor, national officer at Unite, said: "We are astounded...There have been in excess of 15,000 job losses announced since the formation of this organisation."

David Nicholson, of Lloyds Banking Group retail division, said: "We recognise that this is difficult news for our affected colleagues. We are committed to working closelyh with them to help them look for other opportunities within the group and elsewhere between now and May next year."

Lloyds took over HBOS last year in a deal personally brokered by Victor Blank, the bank's chairman and Gordon Brown. The deal has since proved to be disastrous and led to Sir Victor's resignation from the group.

Last week it emerged that HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland were given a secret £61.6 billion in bridging loans last year on top of the £500 billion of support the banking sector received from the taxpayer.

MPs were astonished by the revelation, from Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, which indicated that the two banks were in far greater peril than first thought while Lloyds shareholders are demanding to know why they were not told of the four-month loan. The first instalment was paid two months before Lloyds took over HBOS.

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