BBC ringfences redundancy money for musicians

The BBC has set aside redundancy pay for musicians who are expected to be laid off from BBC orchestras and the BBC Singers.

The classical music news site Slipped Disc reports that Simon Webb, the BBC's Director of Orchestras, informed an internal BBC meeting that the redundancy money has been ringfenced in next year's budget.

Webb said the money was already signed off and that it was a "one-off cost … from a different part of the BBC".

Slipped Disc's Norman Lebrecht also reports that Webb said there there was not enough commercial work to fulfil BBC Director General Tim Davie’s plan of external funding for the orchestras.

The Musicians' Union is currently in negotiations with the BBC regarding the future of BBC Performing Groups.

Last month, the corporation announced proposals to cut employed posts across BBC Singers and three orchestras.