Staff at Weymouth and Portland Housing (WPH) are among those threatened by redundancy, job changes and relocation.

A member of staff, who wished to remain anonymous as he feared for his job, said there were a lot of ‘unhappy people’ at the Lynch Lane, Weymouth office who fear either job loss or a ‘big commute for less money’ if the office is moved to Ferndown.

He said: “I fear it’s going to leave more than 3,000 tenants across Weymouth, Portland and Bridport fending for themselves because the staff won’t be here.

“Most of the staff don’t know if they have a job or not and those that do have been told they have to go to Ferndown on less money.”

He added: “There are up to 100 staff based in Weymouth, although the relocation won’t affect the tradesmen who deal with electrics, plumbing and gas – this will affect the 30-odd office staff.

“There’s a lot of unhappy people in Weymouth and Portland Housing who feel rejected.

“Everybody’s being left in the dark and nobody knows what they’re doing.

The shake-up comes as the parent company, Synergy Housing Group Limited, which also encompasses the Purbeck Housing Trust and East Dorset Housing Trust, undergoes phase two of its restructuring programme.

Catherine Dixson, director of business support for Synergy Housing, denied the allegation that tenants would be left fending for themselves.

She said: “Hopefully the tenants will notice a lot more streamlined and cost-effective service delivery.

“The home visits to sheltered housing residents would still continue.

“In terms of the office accommodation review, it’s just a question of where that is – all options are being explored.

“At the moment we’re running out of four different office locations – for human resources, information technology, asset management, development and some of the housing staff.”

She added: “We employ somewhere in the region of 400 staff, this particular review affects 300 people and of that overall number we have 75 positions at risk of redundancy.

“We’re hoping that the majority of these people will find alternative employment with us.”

Another spokesman for the group said Synergy Housing took over Weymouth and Portland Housing in 2006 and the restructuring process has been ongoing since then.

In a statement, Synergy Housing said it was ‘collectively consulting' all employees for a period of 30 days until Tuesday February 23.

The overall consultation period of 90 days will end on April 24.