BBC airs regional job cuts plan

THE BBC said last Thursday (2) it will axe 450 regional jobs in England as it seeks to cut costs and shake up its local radio stations and TV news.

The broadcaster last month announced that 150 jobs would go in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, on top of the loss of around 450 positions in BBC News.

In a statement last week, it said it was planning a “significant reinvention” of BBC England, which employs more than 3,000 people, in a bid to save £25 million by March 2022.

The BBC said its early evening regional TV news bulletins were the most watched shows on British TV during the pandemic, regularly drawing a quarter of England’s population.

But Helen Thomas, the director of BBC England, said: “Those services were created more than 50 years ago, have changed very little and need significant reinvention.

“That has meant taking some difficult decisions.”

Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said the “huge cuts” would hit the breadth and depth of news coverage.