Rolls-Royce axing 4,600 jobs amid plans to save £400m a year

Around 4,600 jobs are being axed at Rolls-Royce in the latest restructuring as the engineering giant looks to slash costs by another £400 million a year.

The group said the bulk of these job cuts would impact the UK workforce and would be made over the next two years, with around a third expected by the end of 2018.

Rolls said the overhaul, which follows its announcement in January that it plans to slash its five operating businesses to three core units, will impact support functions and management, including within engineering.

Warren East, chief executive of Rolls, said: "We have made progress in improving our day-to-day operations and strengthening our leadership, and are now turning to reduce the complexity that often slows us down and leads to duplication of effort.

"It is never an easy decision to reduce our workforce, but we must create a commercial organisation that is as world-leading as our technologies."

But Rolls insisted it would honour a previous pledge not to impose compulsory redundancies on union-represented staff, including at its sites in Derby, Hucknall and Annesley.