Thames Water, the UK's biggest water firm, has said it plans to make 350 support staff redundant as part of a major efficiency drive.
The utilities giant told staff today that it will be making major job cuts, which will mainly affect support staff in areas such as human relations and management.
The proposals, which will make roughly 5% of its workforce redundant, also outline plans to remove another 300 roles, by not filling vacancies and by axing contractor roles.
That brings the overall reduction in workforce to 650 people.
A spokesman for Thames Water said: "Today we informed our employees of the potential loss of around 350 roles.
"We will seek to minimise redundancies wherever possible, through redeployment and voluntary redundancy for affected groups and by agreement.
"This is clearly very difficult news for employees directly affected and we will do as much as we can to support them, including providing practical help to find new roles.
"We remain totally focused on managing our cost base. The money we spend belongs to our customers and investors - and we are committed to delivering on our commitments to them and all of our stakeholders."
