Some 40 London-based BBC production jobs are to be cut after the corporation launched a redundancy programme across its daytime and factual divisions.
Staff were informed about the decision on Tuesday via email from BBC controller of factual and daytime Natalie Humphreys.
According to The Guardian the cuts will affect six executive producers, 13 series producers and 21 producers, cutting the number of senior editorial staff in the division from around 90 to 50.
The plan to reduce the size of the teams was made ahead of director general Tony Hall’s announcement earlier this month that 1000 BBC jobs were at risk and will not count towards this target accordingly.
In her email Humphreys said there had been “a growing issue with downtime” among production staff in factual and daytime. She claimed that the level of work in London had fallen by around a quarter in the last few years, following a reduction in the number of factual hours available as a result of the Delivering Quality First cost-cutting initiative.
“The proposals are designed to ensure that we continue to produce the highest quality output in London with an efficient business model and within our available budget,” she said.
The reduction of London commissioning hours is partly due to a drive to produce more content outside of the capital.
However Humphreys stressed “these proposals in no way reflect the quality of output,” and that “keeping London strong and vibrant is very important”.
Staff affected will be entered into a six month consultation period with support from broadcasting union Bectu. Those that wish to take voluntary redundancy have until 8 September to apply.
Humphreys said: “Our aim is to resolve the loss of these posts through a voluntary process and our full support will be given to those who are impacted by this announcement”.
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