BBC looks to nations and regions for further savings

The BBC has announced that it will be looking to make further savings this financial year in the nations and regions.

BBC Media City, Salford

The broadcaster wants to save £125m this year and is looking for some of these savings to be made from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England. Around 150 jobs could be at risk as a restructuring process is started.

The process is separate from the news restructuring that has been placed on hold due to the pandemic.

Bectu is supporting members through their BBC reps and is urging anyone in the union affected by these proposed changes to get in touch with their rep.

Bectu national secretary Noel McClean said: “During the pandemic, the BBC has shown itself to be the most used and most trusted source of information for the nation. It has achieved that position because of the hard work of Bectu members, who will be devastated that jobs are now at risk.

“We are being consulted on the cuts and we will oppose any compulsory redundancies but even if this can be managed by voluntary means there will remain issues about workload with less people.

“The BBC is facing unprecedented funding challenges as it has been given responsibility for free licence fees for the over-75s as well as looking to make £125m of savings by the end of the year.

“The government must step in and ensure that the BBC’s funding and output is not compromised by these financial pressures. It can start to do that by taking back responsibility for licence fees for over-75s.”

Just last week the BBC announced that it was launching a voluntary redundancy scheme in the public service arm of its operations.