Managers at Bradford-based Yorkshire Water are understood to be seeking about 100 job losses as part of a restructure of the company.

The move comes two months after an assurance was given that the current £3 billion take-over of Yorkshire Water's parent company, Kelda, by a business consortium called Saltaire Water would not threaten jobs.

Managers are understood to have verbally briefed staff at the company's offices in Halifax Road, Buttershaw, and have already asked for voluntary redundancies. It is believed that some senior posts along with office-based staff will be cut back as part of a restructure that will take effect from July 1.

Senior managers are this week understood to be discussing the changes in the company's operations. Any redundancies will affect the water supplies division, the part of the business responsible for providing tap water to thousands of homes across the region.

The sewerage and environmental division is not affected.

One member of staff who wished to remain anonymous, said he had been approached about taking voluntary redundancy. He said that employees were confused and worried about developments at the business.

He said: "We were told that the earlier we volunteered to go then the better the pay-off would be as an incentive to achieve the number of volunteers they need.

"People are annoyed and unsettled about what is happening and what is going to happen next. They are concerned that the new owners are going back on their promises about jobs and business as usual. There's a large number of long-serving staff here and people are worried about what is going on."

Yorkshire Water said in a statement: "The planned changes taking place within Yorkshire Water's water business unit are in no way related to the take-over of Kelda.

"Yorkshire Water had already taken the decision to restructure the business to enable more focus on providing excellent customer service and on driving innovation and new ideas.

"The people changes are part of this process of restructuring and Yorkshire Water is engaged in an extensive period of consultation with its employees to ensure they are aware of what is happening.

"The company is committed to an open approach to making these necessary changes and is happy to listen to any concerns employees may have. Yorkshire Water always seeks to conduct this kind of change on a voluntary basis."

Yorkshire Water has 2,000 staff, of which about 1,000 are based in Bradford.