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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Charlotte McLaughlin, PA & Michael Broomhead

BBC to leave some buildings in London and Salford as cost-cutting continues

The BBC has revealed it is to leave some of its buildings as the corporation continues to cut costs. It will exit Wogan House, near its Broadcasting House in London, and Bridge House in MediaCity, Salford.

Wogan House was formerly known as Western House prior to 2016, when it was renamed after the late Irish broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan. It was used by the BBC for design until the late 1980s and is now home to Radio 2 and 6 Music programme teams along with staff from other BBC departments.

Bridge House is home to BBC Children's and Education and some BBC Sport and operations staff. The corporation said it will move staff at its London site to Broadcasting House and in Salford to other MediaCity sites like Quay House and Dock House.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The changes are part of ongoing work to reduce costs and invest more in content and deliver more for audiences. A reduction in the size of the estate will help deliver the BBC's net zero commitments as a smaller property footprint will lead to a reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions.

"It also complements the adoption of hybrid working which has resulted in changes to how we use our buildings. Audiences will not notice any changes to programmes and services as a result of these moves taking place."

The news comes after the BBC announced on Monday it would overhaul its local radio services with stations sharing more content and broadcasting less programming unique to their area. Plans confirmed by the broadcaster include the loss of 48 jobs across local staffing in England, amounting to a total reduction of 2%.

The local radio proposals come as part of the BBC's new strategy, announced in May, to create a "modern, digital-led" broadcaster. In September, it announced that 382 jobs at World Service will be cut as part of plans to move to a digital-led service.

Regional TV news programmes in Oxford and Cambridge are also among the services being scrapped – merging with the BBC's Southampton and Norwich operations. The BBC needs to save a further £285million in response to the announcement in January that the licence fee will be frozen for the next two years.

The corporation has delivered more than £1billion of savings in the five years to 2021-22.

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