Thousands of BBC jobs face axe to save £125m

THOUSANDS of jobs at the BBC face the axe because the coronavirus crisis has left it with a £125million shortfall this year.

Bosses yesterday began a trawl of the corporation’s 19,231 public service staff looking for redundancy volunteers.

If not enough come forward it could lead to compulsory jobs losses, which is then likely to spark industrial action by unions.

The BBC has less money because the virus lockdown has forced it to postpone plans to impose the means test which will drastically cut the number of over-75s entitled to free TV licences. Originally due this month, it is now scheduled for the start of August – and the broadcaster says every month’s delay costs £35million.

The pandemic has also reduced the TV Licensing authority’s ability to collect the fee which makes up the bulk of BBC income, while the corporation’s commercial arm has been hit by a production halt and a fall in the advertising market.

The broadcaster had already embarked on an £800million costcutting exercise before the pandemic and it emerged yesterday that a plan to cut 450 jobs from the news division, suspended during the crisis, will now resume.

No fixed number of jobs to be cut in the new round of savings has yet been announced, but the axe is set to swing on all levels.

Staff have six weeks to ‘express an interest’ in voluntary severance. In a call to all personnel yesterday, director-general Tony Hall said: ‘We know hard choices are necessary.

‘Over a third of our costs across the BBC relate to our people.’

One insider said that while all the different savings the BBC needed to make would ‘merge together’, the voluntary redundancy move was prompted by the coronavirus.

And it is likely to be the first in a number of cost-cutting steps.

So far the calculations do not take into account a predicted £200million-a-year loss if the Government decides to decriminalise TV licence evasion, as has been suggested.

BBC executives told MPs earlier this week that the virus crisis would force its channels to carry on showing repeats for months to come and the effect on schedules next year would be even more marked.

Philippa Childs, head of the broadcasting union Bectu, said: ‘Coronavirus has affected every part of the creative industries and the BBC is no exception.

‘The employment market is especially challenging at the moment... and voluntary redundancies are not the solution to the wider funding problems the BBC is facing.’

She added: ‘The Government must take back responsibility for the cost of free licence fees for over-75s to ensure the BBC is able to continue to fulfil its role as the UK’s leading public-service broadcaster without content being compromised.’

A BBC spokesman said: ‘The impact of the coronavirus pandemic means the BBC needs to make £125million of savings this financial year, in addition to the considerable efficiency savings the corporation had previously committed to.’

‘Hard choices are necessary’