Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks cut 1,400 UK jobs © Reuters/Jeff J Mitchell The Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks are to cut more than 1,400 jobs in the UK to focus on their Scotland and Northern England operations. Owners National Australia Bank said the jobs would go by 2015 as it seeks to slash its 8,300-strong UK workforce. The decision comes after the banks lost £25 million in the first half of last year, compared to a £77 million profit in the period 12 months earlier. NAB said the review was a reaction to "the deterioration in the economic and operating conditions" in the UK, particularly in the commercial property market. NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne said: "In the last half-year there has been a significant downgrade in the growth prospects of the UK economy, in part reflecting the drag on its recovery from heightened weakness in the eurozone."