WEEKS after announcing it would retain 400 jobs during its move away from Basingstoke, Thales Group has now said 50 of its borough employees will be made redundant.

Earlier this month the French electronics firm said it would retain all staff members from its Basingstoke operations when it moved its staff to Reading.

Teams in Reading, Basingstoke and Weybridge will move to a new state-of-the-art complex.

But after engineers of Thales, which designs and builds electrical systems, contacted The Gazette to say they would be made redundant by the end of April, the company has now said “there have been redundancies”.

Jon Lunn, head of external communications at Thales Group, said: “It’s a shame but it’s looking like about 50 people will have to leave. Effectively there are two projects.

One is Green Park [which involves employees relocating or commuting to Reading] and the other is working on solutions for the manufacturing in Glasgow.”

The company has engineers in Glasgow and Basingstoke that help manufacture products sold by the company.

However, last year it began a review into efficiencies of operating both.

Mr Lunn added: “Going forward for our customers we found it better to focus on using our Glasgow facilities.

Unfortunately we knew we would end up losing a few as not many were ready to relocate to Glasgow as this is a huge commitment. But the reason we are leaving Basingstoke is not to do with high rates or lack of facilities.”

Thales Group become the fourth major employer in recent years to leave the town.

It followed energy firm SSE, who moved 600 jobs to Reading in 2015, pharmaceutical company Shire, which quit last year, shifting 270 jobs to the capital, and Motorola Solutions, who said it would move 250 jobs to London.

With more than 1,000 jobs leaving Basingstoke since 2015, Cllr Paul Harvey, leader of Basingstoke Labour Group, said Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC) had to “get a grip” and accused it of “loving the confidence of businesses in Basingstoke”.

Leader of BDBC Cllr Clive Sanders told The Gazette the council was unable to “control or influence decisions that international businesses make”.