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Last week the insurer planned to quit the Manchester Express Building by the end of the year and either combine the staff with its Spring Gardens office or move them to a new site altogether.

But it also stated the move would result in a number of redundancies, but these would would mostly be in customer services and the information technology parts of the business.

A spokesman for the insurer said it was consulting with staff about job losses and did not yet know how many employees would go.

But he added the majority of roles affected were not IFA-facing, as they were mostly customer services employees.

Simon Clamp, UK managing director of Friends Provident, said: "We remain committed to the service that we provide to our customers, clients and partners and will take every step to ensure that there will be minimal disruption to our business."

Kevin Hains, chief IFA of Surrey-based Francis Townsend Hayward, said while the jobs were not IFA-facing, the move did raise concerns for Friends Provident's ability to continue to deliver a top service.

He said: "I am sure a lot of services can be done online and remotely now but it is still helpful to have a real human point of contact for advisers or customers.

"From a service point of view, the more offices that close, the more difficult it becomes to deal with certain things.

"You can get a lot of hard facts and information online but some of the softer stuff, like when there is a problem that needs handling, that is when having someone to talk to helps."

He said he expected to see more office closures and redundancies right across the industry as a result of the current economic climate.