UK's Direct Line has announced its decision to cut a disappointing 2,000 jobs as the insurance player tries to control costs and increase savings.

The company said that it will cut about 14 per cent of its staff besides the 1,200 redundancies already announced earlier. The job cuts will include 500 from the closure of a claims centre in Liverpool, which is already facing high unemployment levels in the UK. Further 1,500 jobs will be slashed at Leeds, the head office in Bromley, South London and the closure of an IT centre in Croydon, South London.

Unions have described the company's decision to slash such high number of jobs as "savage bolt from the blue". Unite, the biggest trade union in the UK, criticised the company for announcing the job cuts and the company's disagreement to work with the unions on the matter. The union claimed that it has hundreds of members working at Direct Line, which owns Churchill and Green Flag.

Dominic Hook, Unite's national officer, said: "The fact that Unite, the union with the largest number of finance sector workers in the country, has been refused recognition makes it easier for Direct Line to announce these savage cuts."