One of the UKs biggest life insurance providers Norwich Union part of the AVIA group has announced that it will be cutting around 1700 jobs by the end of the year, this come as a part of a three year efficiency drive. The insurance giant said it would be cutting around 1100 permanent jobs as well as a further 590 contract workers, Norwich union have said the reduction in cancelled jobs vacancies and staff redeployed elsewhere the actual number of staff losing the actual number of jobs lost will be around 800.

Mark Hodges, chief executive of Norwich Union Life, the UK life insurance arm, said the job losses, which sparked fury among unions, were "unfortunate but inevitable" as the insurer approaches the end of a three-year streamlining plan.

"Making decisions that affect our people is always difficult and we are fully committed to doing everything we possibly can to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies. Our priority now is to work with everyone affected by today’s announcement and to support them however we can," Mr Hodges said.