POWER GIANT Scottish and Southern Energy yesterday confirmed that it is to relocate 40 Perth jobs to the west of Scotland.

The staff will move from the company’s Perth Central Warehouse on the Inveralmond industrial estate to a new state-of-the-art facility at Bellshill in Lanarkshire.

SSE stressed that there will be no redundancies and reiterated its commitment to expanding its operations in Perth.

The majority of the staff are drivers who regularly clock up hundreds of miles each day making deliveries to shops, offices, sub- stations and engineering depots all over Scotland.

“This means that for many of the staff location is fairly unimportant,” SSE spokesman Denis Kerby said yesterday.

“However, we will be talking to every individual member of staff involved to establish what their needs are and any problems they may have in terms of location.

“If there are staff that feel they cannot go then, as the largest employer in Perth, there will be plenty of alternative jobs within our operation in the city.

“There should certainly be no question of redundancies and we are confident that everyone will want to stay employed with the firm.

“We are about growing the firm and our staff are our most valuable asset.”

SSE said it had begun to outgrow the warehouse available at the Inveralmond site, hence the upgrade to the new Euro Central facility in Lanarkshire.

However, the Perth warehouse will remain with the company and will continue to form part of its operations.

“The move is simply a response to the company’s success and resulting expansion,” Mr Kerby added.

“We were looking to upgrade our facilities and are now looking forward to starting work in this state-of-the-art facility.

“We hope the improved facilities will improve everyone’s working environment.

“Inevitably some people will have issues regarding the decision but everyone will be individually counselled and sympathetically dealt with.”

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has its headquarters on Dunkeld Road, Perth, on the site of the former Dewar’s bottling plant.

The firm created more than 100 jobs at its premises in Perth last year and said yesterday it intends to continue expanding there.