HUNDREDS of jobs at one of Salisbury's biggest employers could be under threat after a multi-billion-pound takeover deal was confirmed last week.

Insurance giant Aviva is poised to buy pensions firm Friends Life for £5.6bn and bosses have warned of possible redundancies.

It is believed Friends Life still employs about 500 staff at its Castle Street office - despite scaling back its Salisbury workforce in recent years.

The company refused to disclose how many people it employed in the city.

A spokesman for Friends Life said: "Aviva expects the transaction to deliver approximately £225 million of annual savings by the end of 2017.

"This may lead to the removal of duplicated roles and may result in a reduction of approximately 1,500 roles from across the enlarged group of approximately 31,500.

"We appreciate that this news will be disconcerting for employees and we would look to ensure that any redundancies are kept to a minimum wherever possible, by using vacancies and natural turnover, for example.

"At this stage, no specific teams, roles or locations have been identified as the proposed transaction has not completed. "When we are clearer on this, following completion of the deal, we will fully engage and consult with employees and their representative bodies."

The boards of both companies agreed the deal back in December, and now shareholders have voted to go ahead with the takeover.