HUNDREDS of jobs are set to be axed at Rolls-Royce factories across Britain as the engineering giant drives through global cutback plans announced yesterday.

Almost half of the losses will fall on Derby, where 300 jobs are planned to go.

The firm announced last month that 2,600 jobs will go globally from its aerospace wing over the next 18 months.

Rolls said restructuring of its turbine business would lead to the possible closure of a site in Derby and one at Ansty in Warwickshire.

Jobs are also set to go at factories at Inchinnan near Glasgow, Barnoldswick in Lancashire and Hucknall in Nottinghamshire.

Workers’ union Unite regional officer Tony Tinley said: “These cuts are a huge loss of skills to the UK economy and will result in Rolls-Royce outsourcing high-tech manufacturing jobs overseas to plug the skills gap in the future.

“The UK workforce is world class and has proved time and time again to be at the cutting edge of engineering. Rolls-Royce needs to give assurances over its long-term future and manufacturing in the UK.

“There is a real danger that Rolls-Royce is making decisions in the short term which it will later regret and it needs to give a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies.”

A Rolls spokesman said: “We recognise that this is a difficult time for those affected and we will work with local employee representatives to achieve this reduction by voluntary means wherever possible.”