HUNDREDS of Tees Valley insurance workers were facing an uncertain future last night, after Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announced more than 2,000 potential job cuts.

About 460 workers at Churchill Insurance’s office in Teesdale, Stockton, are among 16,000 employees in the bank’s insurance arm possibly under threat in the proposed cuts.

Last night the bank, which is more than 84 per cent owned by the taxpayer, said it was too early to say whether the cuts across the insurance division, which also includes Direct Line, Green Flag and Privilege, would affect staff in the North-East.

A spokesman for the bank said: “There are 2,000 roles that will go from our insurance business.

“They are spread over 50 different offices across the UK, so it is difficult to say where they are going to be because it is a wide area.”

The European Commission has told the bank it must sell its insurance business by 2013 to safeguard competition concerns after RBS received the state aid.

It also emerged that some of the jobs being cut could be transferred to India, a move condemned by the union Unite.

National officer Rob Mac- Gregor said: “Included within this figure of 2,000 is a reduction of about 500 to be achieved through outsourcing and offshoring, although the bank has confirmed that these would not be customerfacing roles.

“Unite is fundamentally opposed to offshoring, as well as compulsory redundancies.

“This is a devastating blow for a dedicated workforce which has worked very hard to turn around the fortunes of RBS following some disastrous decisions by the previous management.”

In a statement, the bank said: “We are working hard to rebuild RBS in order to repay taxpayers for their support, and having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of this process. We have strived at all times to be open and honest about the tough choices we are making.

“We will do all we can to support our staff through this process and do everything possible to keep compulsory redundancy to an absolute minimum.”

It added: “So far, the job losses we’ve announced to date have resulted in fewer than one in four people being made compulsorily redundant.”

The bank’s insurance division saw operating profits slump last year due to a surge in personal injury claims.

It posted a £170m loss during the final three months of the year and a surge in claims sparked by the winter freeze prevented the insurance arm returning to profit in the first quarter of this year.

As well as 2,000 jobs in the insurance arm, the bank is also shedding 600 of its 2,100 retail banking headquarters staff, based at locations including Edinburgh and London.

The latest cuts bring the total job losses at the business since the financial crisis began to 22,600, of which 16,600 have fallen in the UK.