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The BBC now has 2,834 posts in Salford and the north, or 17% of its workforce
The BBC now has 2,834 posts in Salford and the north, or 17% of its workforce. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The BBC now has 2,834 posts in Salford and the north, or 17% of its workforce. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

BBC now has more staff outside London than in the capital

This article is more than 9 years old
Corporation has hits target set in 2004, with 8,169 based in capital after relocation of more than 2,000 posts to Salford

The BBC now has more staff outside London than in the capital for the first time following the relocation of more than 2,000 posts to Salford, finally reaching a target first set in 2004.

The corporation said that 49% of its staff work in London, which equates to some 8,169 full-time equivalent roles based on the 16,672 number of staff given in the most recent annual report, for the 12 months to the end of March. The proportion of BBC staff working in London has fallen from 58% in 2007.

Salford, where the new BBC North headquarters opened in 2011, is the corporation’s biggest base outside the capital. The BBC moved London-based departments including parts of Radio 5 Live, BBC Sport, Children’s, Learning and BBC Breakfast to the MediaCityUK facility.

Salford and the north of England, including cities such as Leeds, now account for 17% of BBC staff, or 2,834 full-time equivalent roles – up from 7% in 2007.

The proportion of staff working in Wales has risen by one percentage point to 8% compared with 2007, which a BBC spokesman said reflected the growing importance of Cardiff as a production base.

Roath Lock, the BBC’s new drama studios, opened in the Porth Teigr area of Cardiff Bay in in September 2011. Doctor Who, which has been made in Wales since its revival in 2005, has been joined at the new facility by Casualty – previously made in Bristol – Welsh-language soap Pobol y Cwm and Russell T Davies’ children’s series Wizards vs Aliens.

Scotland remained steady on 7% compared with 2007, but the figures for both Northern Ireland and the Midlands were down by one percentage point to 3% and 4% respectively. More staff were due to move to Birmingham in the future, a BBC spokesman said.

Reaching the staff target meant that the BBC has now met one of the original targets of its strategic property plan.

A key plank of the scheme was selling Television Centre in west London, which had been the corporation’s headquarters since it opened in 1960, for £200m. The BBC said the sale also reduced running costs by £30m a year and cut the size of the BBC’s property portfolio in London.

The corporation said on Friday it was now two-thirds of the way through its property rationalisation programme, reducing the number of buildings it occupied from more than 300 to 154.

Anne Bulford, BBC managing director of finance and operations, said that the drive to base more staff in the nations and English regions was part of its aim to make it more efficient and reflective of Britain as a whole.

“The saving we are making mean more of the licence fee than ever is going on producing the best quality shows,” she said.

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