KENT Reliance Building Society is set to inflame the row over its use of Indian workers after disclosing it is poised to open a call centre in India.

The Chatham-based mutual, already under fire for outsourcing back office processing to Pune, says it may need up to eight staff to handle calls about its Isa and new postal investment accounts.

Directors have already approved the move "in principle" although they are aware this may cause further concern among members.

At a lively annual meeting in Buckmore Park, Chatham, several members criticised the use of Indians.

However, chief executive Mike Lazenby defended the move, saying that the society, the fastest-growing in Britain with assets of £900m, had to the contain the cost of growth and tap the best skills.

By using Indian workers, the society paid only a quarter of what similar local employees would cost where required skills were not so plentiful.

Indians had excellent skills, many with two degrees. They were "prosperous, young and enthusiastic."

Mr Lazenby denounced criticism on racist grounds, saying it should not be tolerated.

He said: "I know there is a lot of emotion about call centres going to India but we are considering it. If we feel it's right and it's viable, we'll do it."

It was also more flexible. "We don't have to employ a whole lot of temps. And we can offer longer service because there is a five and a half hour time difference." No one in Sun Pier, Chatham, would lose their job, he said.

Anne-Marie Nelson, a non-executive director and member of the Kent and Medway Learning and Skills Council, told members that the decision to switch work to India was painful.

But the truth was that Britain was not very good at producing the skills the society needed.

"In a world that doesn't exist, I would have every single bit of our job done in Kent," she said.

The quality of the Indians'’ work, their openness to new ways of doing things and willingness to do it to the best standard was "very difficult to turn down”.

"I say this with an enormous amount of sadness. My own prediction is that quite a lot of back office functions in all kinds of organisations will go to India."

The new direct investment account will offer a higher rate of interest than some other Kent Reliance branch-based accounts. It will only be open to people using the post.

Meanwhile, the society is about to announce the future of its branch network which, it claims, is used by only 45 per cent of members and is losing money.