LG has started moves to eliminate about 1,000 roles by mid-2027. António Simões is pushing the cut as he seeks a leaner organisation, and the first step is voluntary redundancies in the UK.
1,000 jobs amount to about a tenth of Legal & General’s workforce, with most of its 10,000 employees based in the UK. Simões told staff in an email that the group had made “significant progress executing our strategy, simplifying L&G, establishing three core businesses, and creating a more focused business.”
António Simões and L&G
January 2024 marked Simões’ arrival as chief executive, and by June 2024 he had already sharpened the focus on the pensions arm and reduced the group’s four businesses to three by merging its asset management divisions. He has also sold Cala Homes and several legacy land and real estate assets, while pledging to return more than £5bn to shareholders between 2025 and 2027 through dividends and share buybacks.
£1.2tn of assets sit outside the programme in the fund management division, which L&G has excluded because it has its own restructuring plan. The company said that work on the new cuts sits alongside its broader push into a market it expects to generate £500bn of transactions in the UK pensions market over the next decade, while it is also benefiting from about £1bn of new inflows each month.
Voluntary redundancies in the UK
“However, over the last decade, different structures, processes and ways of working have developed across L&G, making us more complex than we need to be… we need to change how we work today and, through this, become a leaner organisation.” That leaves the company with a two-stage process: first, voluntary departures in the UK, then mandatory job cuts if take-up falls short.
“will help us focus our resources and investment on the areas where we see the strongest opportunities for long-term growth” and “We recognise and take seriously the impact on colleagues and are committed to supporting our people throughout the process and consulting with our unions.” For employees, the practical issue is whether the voluntary route absorbs most of the 1,000 roles or whether compulsory cuts follow; the company has already moved the process from plan to action, and that is the part staff now have to work through.
