This is taken from Ariel:

BBC property to be cut by 30%
By Cathy Loughran
Deputy Editor, Ariel

The BBC is set to reduce its property portfolio by 30% over the next two years, slash layers of management and inject an immediate £1m into English regions technology, Caroline Thomson announced today.

Updating staff on the Delivering Quality First process, in a televised briefing from Pacific Quay in Glasgow, the BBC's chief operating officer and DQF executive sponsor also insisted that there were no plans as yet to reduce redundancy terms.

Contrary to press reports, she said that was not an emerging proposal now, although Thomson could not guarantee the current staff redundancy package would not be looked at in the future.

'If we do propose changes, there is an absolute promise that it would be 18 months before anything was implemented, because it is a lifetime decision whether or not to take redundancy,' she told her internal audience.

On property, Thomson said the BBC's current 400 sites would be reduced by a minimum of 25% by 2013 and hopefully, by nearer 30%, as the organisation took its money out of 'bricks and mortar' to put into programmes.

At a press briefing after the ringmain session, she clarified that the reduction would be in square metres of occupied property, rather than numbers of buildings. The aim was to get the total down to 300,000 square metres.

The London portfolio was by far the biggest and likely to take the biggest hit. Moving out of White City could be one option, she suggested.

'It would not be about exiting any of the bases in English regions, the nations or in local radio - it's about downsizing so we can let off spare space and look radically at London.'

In the drive to simplify the organisation, management layers would be cut to a maximum of seven 'as a matter of principle', she said. There are currently nine or ten in some areas and eight in many more.

Post 2013 would be a period of investment, for which 4% of the target 20% savings has been earmarked. But immediate needs to update technology in the English regions would be addressed with an extra £1m to fund tv production kit and badly needed upgrades at stations like Radio Northampton, recently highlighted in Ariel.

Standing in for the director-general, who has had a family bereavement, Thomson gave a 100 day update on DQF workstream themes like a reappraisal of the deal the BBC offers its staff, including recognising skills and expertise through pay structures and encouraging greater movement around the organisation. Currently only 5% move jobs around the BBC.

Clarity within BBC services was another theme. What should the future be for jazz and drama on Radio 3, for instance?

Ideas to save money by screening more repeats of quality drama and scrapping bespoke daytime schedules on BBC Two - both already given a wide airing in the press - are clearly still in the DQF melting pot.

And movement out of London would be likely to continue and even increase, Thomson said.

She reiterated Mark Thompson's belief that no whole services would close as a result of the DQF process, saying that the Radio and Vision workstreams were coming to the same conclusions. Although proposals could come through to change the 'nature' of services.

Staff in the PQ audience were keen to know what the implications for Scotland-only opt-outs on BBC Two would be if, as suggested to the TV workstream, the channel was made network-only.

BBC Scotland currently broadcasts 500 hours of output on Two for Scottish audiences, including Newsnight Scotland and coverage of the Scottish Parliament.

The idea had been floated to save distribution costs, Thomson said. BBC Scotland controller Ken MacQuarrie added: 'Nothing has yet been ruled in or out. One of the strengths [of DQF] has been the level of open debate across the organisation.'

More than 4000 staff have so far contributed to the in-house consultation, which will continue until a further update in June. Over the summer, firm proposals will go to the BBC Trust, with no final decisions on any changes expected before the autumn