Legal & General is preparing to cut around 1,000 jobs by the middle of next year as the insurance and pensions group accelerates a restructuring aimed at simplifying its business.
Antonio Simoes, chief executive, told staff in an email on Wednesday that the company needed to “become a leaner organisation” as it sought to reduce complexity across the group.
The proposed redundancies are expected to affect about a tenth of L&G’s workforce. The company will initially offer voluntary redundancy to UK employees, although its asset management division will be excluded from the latest round of cuts.
The reductions form part of a wider effort to streamline the structure of one of Britain’s largest financial services groups. L&G has already reduced the number of its main businesses from four to three and has disposed of assets including its Cala Homes housebuilding operation.
“Over the last decade, different structures, processes and ways of working have developed across L&G, making us more complex than we need to be,” Simoes told employees.
“To deliver our strategy successfully, we now need to make sure the way we work reflects the business we are becoming.”
The latest programme follows earlier job reductions in L&G’s asset management business, which was affected by an earlier phase of the group’s simplification strategy.
The cuts come despite a stronger-than-expected first half for the company. Last month, L&G reported a 37 per cent increase in fee-related earnings from its asset management division, highlighting the contrast between improving performance in parts of the business and the broader push to reduce costs and organisational complexity.
The company said the restructuring was designed to redirect investment towards areas where it sees greater long-term growth opportunities.
An L&G spokesman said: “Since 2024, L&G has become a simpler, more focused business.
“These changes represent the next stage of that transformation, ensuring that our organisation and ways of working reflect the business we are now building and the rapidly changing environment in which we operate.
“They will also help us focus our resources and investment on the areas where we see the strongest opportunities for long-term growth.
“We recognise and take seriously the impact on colleagues and are committed to supporting our people throughout the process and consulting with our unions.”
The planned reductions underline the pressure on established financial groups to reshape operations as they seek to lower costs, simplify corporate structures and concentrate investment on businesses capable of delivering longer-term growth.
For L&G, the programme represents another significant step in Simoes’s effort to reshape the group around a smaller number of core businesses, following the sale of non-core assets and the consolidation of its operating structure.
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