News of BBC jobs cuts ‘real concern‘, says UK’s culture secretary

The BBC’s sudden announcement of 2,000 job cuts has had a “very strong effect” on staff, the UK’s culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said, as employees expressed frustration that highly paid presenters and senior staff would not be the prime targets of the cuts.

Nandy, who has been having conversations with BBC staff during discussions about the broadcaster’s charter renewal, is understood to be keen that staff are involved in making the cost-cutting plan, which will affect as many as 10% of the broadcaster’s 21,000 employees over the next three years.

BBC staff were told they would not be told the specifics of who would be affected by the cuts until September, the Guardian understands, making for a morale-sapping summer.

Nandy told MPs on Thursday: “Colleagues will know that yesterday, the BBC interim director-general announced that there will be significant cuts to staffing, which I know have had a very, very strong effect on the staff themselves, and are of real concern to people out in the country.”

BBC staff were informed of the cuts on Wednesday afternoon at an online all-staff meeting led by the BBC’s interim director general, Rhodri Talfan Davies. More than 500 employees are understood to have asked questions and made comments.

Younger employees in particular expressed concern about their futures, and said they felt the response from management was “it’s tough, deal with it”, and that they would bear the brunt of the cuts.

“So the answer for young people in the BBC is ‘tough luck’,” one staff member posted online during the all-staff meeting. “Do you think that answer will boost morale amongst those who are supposed to be the ‘future of the BBC’?”.

Another employee said the seemingly continuous rounds of cuts had led to people questioning whether a future at the BBC was a viable option. “I have been at the BBC for nearly two years, this is the second round of headcount reductions since I started,” posted the staff member. “I am in my mid-20s, and I love the BBC, but it’s getting to the point of ‘Am I next?’. I want to progress my career and have some job security.”

A repeated theme was the feeling that senior staff and high-paid presenters, many of whom are paid hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, would not be the prime target of the cuts.

“[Those of] us who have just joined the BBC will be the first you get rid of and keep the old guard like has happened before,” said one employee. While another suggested: “I love our presenters but some of them are on a silly amount of money, would some be willing to take a pay cut?”

“I feel like many of us are only emotionally getting over the last two rounds of cuts,” posted one employee in the meeting’s forum. “I personally have found it very hard to feel motivated to continue in a career in a company that seems to not know how to refrain from putting our hard-earned jobs at risk every few years.”

Frustrations extended to criticism of the incoming director general, Matt Brittin, a former senior executive at Google, who Nandy held talks with after news of the cuts, during which Nandy stressed the importance of putting the BBC on “a strong financial footing”.

“In an organisation aiming to save money, why was the director general role and its £500,000 salary given to someone with no broadcast experience,” queried another employee.

After the meeting, the BBC’s interim director said in an email to staff that the broadcaster was facing “significant financial pressures” which needed to be responded to “with pace”, adding: “Inevitably, these plans will also mean reducing the number of jobs in the BBC. While we still have to work through the detail, we anticipate that the overall number of jobs will fall by 1,800 to 2,000. I know this creates real uncertainty, but we wanted to be open about the challenge.”

Ministers are understood to be wary of overstepping into internal staffing matters, but remain conscious that the latest cuts announcement comes at a time of turbulence and are keen to ensure staff are involved in the process.