Specialist lender to axe more than a quarter of its workforce

Cheadle-based specialist mortgage and secured loan provider Together is to axe more than a quarter of its staff.

The group, which employs 750 people, has announced a redundancy programme that will see around 200 of its employees lose their jobs.

Announcing third quarter figures in May, group chairman Mike McTighe said: “While it is too early to reliably estimate the full economic impact of COVID-19, we expect the remainder of 2020 to be challenging.”

Today, the group revealed the extent of the impact the virus has had on its business when it confirmed it has launched an employee consultation process on proposals to reduce colleague numbers by about 200.

It said the pandemic has created “significant uncertainty” adding: “Against this backdrop, while we are cautiously increasing lending volumes it is unlikely we will resume our pre-COVID-19 activity levels for some time.

“At the same time, we are accelerating some of our modernisation and transformation programmes, including further use of digitalisation and enhanced automation to provide additional processing efficiencies and improve the journey for our customers.”

In line with government guidelines, Together provided its customers with the option of ‘payment holidays’ to help mitigate the pandemic impact.

It said payment deferrals peaked at around 22% of group customers by value.

This level had reduced to around 16% of group customers as at July 16.

It revealed that, as initial payment deferrals’ periods approach their end date, Together is contacting customers to understand their circumstances and any further support they may require.

And while the Government has extended the final date for payment deferral requests to October 31, 2020, early responses indicate that around 70% of the customers contacted expect to return to making full, or partial, payments when their deferral period ends.

However, chief executive designate Gerald Grimes said: “While it remains too early to reliably estimate the full impact of COVID-19, we expect the remainder of 2020 and possibly 2021 to be challenging for most businesses.

“Together entered the pandemic in a strong position and, as we move out of lockdown, we are taking the necessary steps to shape our business for the future: putting plans in place to mitigate any downside risks, ensuring our cost base is appropriate, and accelerating our transformation programmes to make us more efficient and further improve the experience for our customers.

“With the actions we are taking, we believe Together will emerge from the crisis well placed to support our customers and to play our part in supporting the UK’s economic recovery.”

Together employs more than 750 staff and has a loan book of £4.2bn.