Royal & Sun Alliance, the newly merged £5.4 billion British insurance group, yesterday announced it was shedding 1,300 jobs across the UK.

The company, formed from the merger of Royal Insurance and Sun Alliance, is to shut 94 retail branches with the loss of 300 jobs. It also said it was cutting staff numbers by 500 in each of its head offices in Liverpool and Horsham, West Sussex, through natural wastage.