BOSSES at the Lloyds Banking Group have refused to give a time scale for decision-making over the future of the Scunthorpe mortgage processing centre and its 320 employees.

A spokeswoman said: "We may not be in a position to say something on Scunthorpe for a while. We said at the beginning of the transaction the whole integration will take two to three years."

The ongoing review of the 18-year-old centre on the town's Kingsway Business Park, however, prompted Scunthorpe MP Elliot Morley to make a plea on behalf of the threatened workers.

Mr Morley said: "It is clear the bank is looking for savings through efficiency and consolidation.

"My case is that Scunthorpe is a high-quality, cost-effective operation that fits into the objective and I will continue to press that point."

The bank has agreed to a meeting between Mr Morley and the person in charge of the review after the MP met the company's parliamentary representative, Jo Haleman, on Monday.

The MP said he had emphasised how important the Kingsway site was to Scunthorpe in terms of jobs.

Mr Morley added: "I also made the point that recruitment of top quality staff was a problem in other parts of the UK – but this was not the case in Scunthorpe."

On Tuesday the MP resumed discussions with the 42,000-strong Lloyds TSB Trade Union, which has got the backing from North Lincolnshire Council in its campaign to keep the Kingsway Centre open.

Mr Morley said assistant general secretary Steve Taplow had raised concerns about the bank's policy of off-shoring jobs to India.

He added: "I agreed with him that a change of this policy would help secure jobs in Scunthorpe and the UK and it is one of the issues I will raise with the bank at my next meeting."