1,800 jobs to go at Norwich insurance giant Aviva

Aviva employs 30,000 staff in total, with more than 5,000 in Norwich. Credit: ITV News Anglia

Around 1,800 jobs are being axed at Norwich based insurance giant Aviva over the next three years as part of an overhaul to save £300 million a year.

Aviva - which employs around 30,000 staff in total - said it will look to keep redundancies to a minimum as it slashes costs, with some of the role cuts coming from natural staff turnover.

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The group said savings will also be made across central costs, contractor and consultant spend, reduction in project spend and in other areas.

It has not given a split of which teams or offices will be affected, but said the cuts will be made across its UK and international operations.

More than 5,000 Aviva employees are currently based in Norwich.

Labour MP Clive Lewis said more redundancies in the city would be a "disaster".

Aviva also announced plans to split its UK life and general insurance businesses to "enable stronger accountability and greater management focus".

It comes as part of a revamp of the group by new chief executive Maurice Tulloch, who took on the top job in March.

Aviva has major UK offices in Norwich, Bristol, Sheffield, York, Perth and Bishopbriggs outside Glasgow.

The group said its separated UK life business will be headed up by Angela Darlington, formerly chief risk officer, while previous Canadian boss Colm Holmes has been appointed chief executive of UK general insurance.

Customers will not see any changes as a result of the UK split, it said. The combined business was previously led by Andy Briggs, who stepped down in April just weeks after he missed out on the top job.