Around 1,800 BBC staff will be made redundant as part of a £2 billion cost-saving plan, it was announced on Thursday.
The cuts will primarily affect those working in news and factual production. The BBC expects to close an estimated 2,500 positions between now and 2012/2013, whilst at the same time creating around 700 new jobs.
According to the BBC, the six-year-plan, called Delivering Creative Future, was prompted by a smaller than expected licence fee settlement from the government.
BBC director-general Mark Thompson told staff: “There will be a smaller BBC, but one which packs a bigger punch because it is more focused on quality and the content that really makes a difference to audiences.”
However, Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said that the BBC Trust is failing in its duty to protect core BBC services: “If the trust really believes quality news and current affairs is at the heart of what the BBC does, and viewers say such programmes are what they value most about the BBC, it makes no sense to sack hundreds of staff in these core services.”
He added: “It is an abdication of the trust’s responsibility to rubber stamp plans which will undermine quality and lead to the sacking of front line staff. It is inevitable anger will grow and calls for strike action will get louder.”
