Journalists working at newspapers across Newsquest London will start a work-to-rule next week in a dispute over redundancies, pay and quality of content.

The National Union of Journalists says 27 journalists at papers in Surrey, Sutton and Twickenham, including the South London Guardian and the Richmond and Twickenham Times, will be involved in the ongoing work-to-rule which begins on 15 April.

It comes after a vote of nearly four to one in favour of taking industrial action.

But the NUJ members say they are prepared to work an extra hour per day to secure the quality of their titles, if the company restores the amount of editorial space in the newspapers.

The union is also demanding Newsquest honours a 2pc pay rise and says it had offered to take the dispute to conciliation service ACAS when management then began seeking volunteers for redundancy.

NUJ negotiator Jenny Lennox said: “Our members are prepared to work as hard possible, as they have always done, to ensure that the newspapers and websites are of the best quality possible and communities are being properly served.

“In light of the changes in the titles’ editorial space, members are extremely concerned about the plummeting quality of the products.

“We are concerned that the papers may not be providing the good service to their communities that they have done in the past.”

NUJ deputy general secretary Michelle Stanistreet added: “We have sought to conduct this dispute in a reasoned and orderly way, but Newsquest management apparently prefers to be unreasonable. Our members want the company to resolve this issue without further trouble.”

Newsquest chief executive Paul Davidson was not available for comment.