POLITICIANS and union leaders rounded on United Utilities today in the wake of 1,700 job losses and news of price rises for water and electricity.

The firm's announcement stunned the 14,000-strong workforce and unions warned of strike action if any of the job cuts were compulsory. The job cuts were announced as the company prepared to increase water prices by 5.8 per cent from next month and electricity bills by 4.9 per cent.

County Council leader Louise Ellman condemned the losses as an "atrocious decision" which would send shock waves around the region. "It fulfills the warnings made at the time United Utilities was formed," she said.

"This is the consequence of a giant privatised monopoly running public utilities where profit comes first and public services come last." Unison said it was "shocked and angry" by the announcement.

"The only people who will benefit are the fat cat directors and major shareholders," said spokesman Joan Fletcher.

"This is a national scandal. We will now consider balloting for industrial action as no guarantee has been given that compulsory redundancies will be avoided,"

United Utilities said the 1,700 redundancies would be spread over the next three years and were in addition to 800 already announced by the company.

The firm said many of the job cuts would be at Vertex, the new company formed by United Utilities to handle billing and customer inquiries for North West Water and Norweb.

The shops and contracting arms of Norweb are also to be sold and unions said that the jobs of up to 4,500 more employees were at risk.

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