More job cuts have been announced in the UK utility industries, only one month after 3,200 job losses were announced in the water industry alone.

Thames Water says it is to trim 1,000 staff from its UK operations over the next five years, while Yorkshire Electricity is cutting 350 this year.

The group says it will cut 200 jobs each year from its core water and sewerage business based in Reading, Berkshire.

Thames supplies 12 million customers in London and the Thames Valley, including Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Hertfordshire, Hampshire and parts of Essex and Kent.

The cuts follow industry regulator Ofwat's price reviews last year which will see Thames customers having their household bills reduced. They should be paying £26 less a year by 2005.

Voluntary redundancy

The majority of the reductions at the group, which employs 10,000 in the UK and 4,000 internationally, are expected to be achieved through normal staff turnover.

Dave Prentis, deputy general secretary of the UK's largest union, Unison, said: "It is a bitter blow to our members working in water, coming on top of all the cuts in jobs that were announced last year.

"We believe that Thames Water should put a freeze on shareholders' dividends following Ofwat's price review, rather than cutting jobs."

Thames said it was planning to generate at least 30% of its profits from international and non-regulated UK business - up from 15% at present.

Acquisitions

Chief Executive Bill Alexander said: "We see very good prospects in the international water market and by April of this year we should see as many customers outside the UK as we have inside the UK."

Overseas operations are the fastest growing part of Thames Water and their contribution will be boosted by the recently announced acquisition of US water utility E'town and a stake in Chilean water company Essel.

Mr Alexander said: "We've been strong in Asia for some time but the acquisition of Essel and E'town will give us good positions in the Americas, and we are prospecting in Europe."

He said Thames was also looking at further contracts in South Africa, Morocco, Thailand, the United States and South America.

Electricity jobs go

Yorkshire Electricity says it is cutting 350 jobs over the next year - almost 10% of its 4,500-strong workforce.

The company said it hoped to achieve the cutbacks through voluntary redundancies and would hold talks with unions.

American-owned Yorkshire, which has 2.1 million customers, has blamed the cuts on the decision by the industry regulator to order price reductions.

The company said it had held off from making any immediate redundancies after the pricing review last year.

But it said it now had to respond by improving efficiency and streamlining its distribution and supply business.

Thousands of jobs have been axed in the electricity supply sector since the price cuts were enforced last year.

Yorkshire was asked to cut £9 from each customer's domestic electricity bill.

A union spokesman said: "This is a big blow to the workers and confirms our worst fears about the effects of the review.

"We will hold further talks with the company to make sure workers get the best possible deal and that any redundancies are voluntary."