INSURANCE giant Zurich is axing more than 50 jobs in Hampshire as part of a major cost-cutting drive.

The Swiss company is planning to shed about 440 post across the UK, including 56 at its Whiteley branch, between now and the end of March.

It comes just days after Zurich reported that its UK general insurance business had suffered a 48-per-cent drop in third quarter operating profits.

The company wants to cut costs in the UK by at least £40 million over the next two years.

Confirming the Whiteley job losses a Zurich spokesman said: “Once they have gone there will still be more than 1,000 people based at the site.

“The other job losses will be shared across a dozen or so sites across the UK, including Farnborough.

“One of the objectives is to remove costs – we are too expensive to operate. The other is to make our organisation less complex and easier to deal with if you’re a customer or an insurance broker.”

The across-the-board redundancies will be the subject of a consultation exercise that started today.

The spokesman added: “We started by briefing individual members of staff whose roles are at risk and moved on to more widespread briefings for whole departments.

“It’s always said when restructuring has to be carried out and people lose their jobs as a result.

“Insurance generally is going through a tough time at the moment.

“We have been clear for some time that we need to remove cost from our organisation but losing jobs is never a first resort.”

Meon Valley MP George Hollingbery added: “I am very sorry to hear this news, especially with it coming so close to Christmas.

“Luckily we have a booming economy here in the south east so I very much hope that those who are to lose their jobs will pick up work quickly.”