WORCESTER energy giant npower has confirmed no jobs in the city are to be lost in a wave of redundancies that will see 1,460 people laid off.

The company today announced a major restructure that will see back office functions outsourced to India and 540 call centre jobs transferred to private company Capita.

Offices in Stoke on Trent, Oldbury and Thornaby, North Yorkshire, will close and posts will be cut in Sunderland and Leeds.

All call centre employees will be able to keep their jobs under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006.

CEO Paul Massara said the plans would improve customer service.

“I understand that these changes would be incredibly hard for some of our employees and we’ll be doing everything we can to support them over the next few months,” he said.

“This restructure is necessary if we are to deliver the levels of service our customers deserve.

“All calls would still be answered in the UK.

“We would have the flexibility to keep call waiting times down during busy periods, and continue to keep costs down so we can keep bills down.”

Yesterday Britain’s largest trade union UNISON attacked the decision as a "Christmas nightmare for staff and customers" and warned the company’s reputation would be severely damaged as a result.