Director of BBC England Helen Thomas has emailed employees announcing the organisation it is to cut something “in the region of 450 jobs” in order to save £25 million by the end of March 2022, on top of the 60 job cut announced by BBC Wales last week. Regional and local broadcast is to be particularly hit:

• Staffing restructure in regional TV news and a new operating model will drive significant efficiencies.
• Reduce the number of presenters on our 6:30pm regional TV news bulletins.
• Local radio will permanently adopt a simplified schedule with single-headed presentation and three four-hour daytime programmes (instead of four three-hour programmes).

Thomas says she is “very aware this is tough on our staff who have been amazing these past few months. But we can’t pretend the financial challenge is going away.” Once again, the £25 million local job cuts have been announced just one week after the BBC committed £100 million to increasing diversity on TV. Priorities…