Over 150 jobs go at mortgage firm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/wales/7559350.stm

Version 0 of 1.

More than 150 jobs at a mortgage processing centre are set to be lost, financial services company Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) has confirmed.

Its centre in Principality House in Cardiff city centre is set to close down by the end of March 2009, a spokesman for the business said.

Staff at the office process mortgage application forms for Halifax.

The announcement comes the day after it was revealed a flats development in Cardiff Bay has been put on hold.

A spokesman for HBOS said it was working with unions to ensure that as many people as possible who lost their jobs would be redeployed locally.

It is closing its specialist lender The Mortgage Business to new customers from 22 August. It had been offering a range of loans, including self-certification mortgages, which have been criticised.

It is expected that up to 325 people nationwide will leave the firm as a result of its restructuring.

Belway Homes have halted work on a second flat-development in Cardiff Bay.

HBOS continues to employ around 1,000 staff at its two other sites in Cardiff - Birmingham Midshires and Halifax Card Services.

Meanwhile the Bellway Home Quayside development situated opposite the entrance to the Wales Millennium Centre has been "put on hold at the moment".

It follows the decision last month by Bellway Homes to temporarily stop work on a black of flats in the Prospect Place development.

Six floors of the seventeen story block have already been built at Prospect Place.

Last month Bellway said work was halted because of a decline in demand in Cardiff Bay, but the firm insists it will resume work when sales pick up again.

Also in July, banking giant Barclays announced it was cutting 300 jobs at its home loans division Firstplus in Cardiff, while online mortgage advice company Moneypilot, part of Principality, said 26 jobs were at risk at its city centre office.