BT is cutting 2,200 jobs in a major reorganisation of its call centre operations, but Southampton is escaping lightly in the move to close 53 bases over the next two years.

BT is one of the largest private sector employers in Southampton where more than 1,000 people are on the payroll.

But the move to spend £100m on creating 30 "next generation centres" around the country with new technology to run directory inquiries and accounting services will mean the loss of 19 jobs in Southampton.

A BT spokesman said a small section dealing with sales to small and medium-sized businesses in the company's Briton Street base would go.

But he stressed there would be no compulsory redundancies at any of the sites which were to close.

Referring to the Southampton operation, he said: "We have made a commitment to find alternative roles for everyone who wants to stay with BT. They will stay in the city and fulfil other roles."

But union bosses said they were not convinced that BT could offer reasonable alternative job opportunities in the sites it had chosen to close.

Jeannie Drake, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, wanted guarantees that comparable jobs would be made available.

A BT spokesman said it felt that creating a smaller network of leading edge, multi-function centres, was the key to making "further dramatic improvements" in the service they offered to customers.