A WATER company which laid off 100 staff before Christmas is planning a further 150 redundancies.

Southern Water, which last year was ranked the worst water service in the country by the Consumer Council for Water, says jobs in Worthing and Brighton will be lost.

Last year The Argus reported Southern Water staff based in the Durringon office had complained of “eight weeks of hell” during a redundancy consultation, with staff attending hospital emergency rooms due to the intolerable stress levels.

This week Southern Water announced a “business transformation and improvement project”.

As part of this project, a spokeswoman said: “We will be reducing staff numbers at our offices in Worthing and Brighton.

“We regularly review and improve how we work to ensure our services are resilient and affordable for current and future customers.

As part of this ongoing process we’re making changes which will reduce customers’ bills. We anticipate reducing the number of colleagues in management and support roles by approximately 150.

“We expect the majority of the colleagues affected will be based in our Worthing office.”

Staff will be offered alternative roles where possible and will be offered support, including CV writing, interview preparation and counselling services.

Southern Water chief executive Ian McAulay said: “We care deeply about continually improving our business, increasing financial transparency and providing great services for our customers.

“To achieve this we are constantly reviewing our processes and making changes to the way we work.

“Change is not easy but this will help us improve our services for customers by transforming key aspects of the work we deliver.”