The BBC has been forced to deny reports it is planning to lay off up to half of its 28 000 staff.

London’s Evening Standard has carried a story, claiming previous estimates of 6000 job cuts ‘may turn out to be a wild underestimate’.

BBC Director General, Mark Thompson, has told staff: “Inevitably, staff numbers are one of the issues we are looking at in the context of the ‘Value for Money’ internal review, but the idea that anyone anywhere in the BBC is seriously suggesting making half the BBC redundant is simply preposterous.

“I haven’t seen any firm recommendations from the review yet, so anything you read in the papers is pure speculation in any event,”

With the BBC’s 10 year governing charter under review by Parliament, the Corporation has already indicated it plans to move at least 1500 jobs out of London to try to bolster regional diversity, most of them to Manchester.