An electricity company is axing 1,000 jobs across the South-East but staff in Sussex are believed to be safe.
London Electricity Group is making the cuts in the wake of last year's purchase of Seeboard, which employs about 4,500 people in Sussex, Kent and Surrey, for £670 million.
The group, owned by state-run Electricite de France, warned when it bought the company from American Electric Power there would inevitably be cuts.
A London Electricity spokesman said: "As part of the merger arrangements, it became clear we would require something like 1,000 less jobs. That is being worked through now."
He said the cuts would be mostly in London and the South-East but a company insider later said it was unlikely the job losses would impact on Sussex.
There will be no compulsory redundancies and the jobs are to go through a process of natural wastage.
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