The broadband and mobile group has reduced its UK workforce by 11% in 12 months. Chief executive Allison Kirkby is aiming for a workforce of 65,000 to 70,000 by 2030, as profits rise but cash flow falls and debt grows.
BT has cut 11,712 jobs over the past year and says further reductions will follow. The telecoms group’s UK workforce, including direct staff and contractors, has fallen by 11% in that time, with more than 7,700 of the roles going in the last six months alone. Its workforce now stands at about 90,000. Chief executive Allison Kirkby plans to bring it down to between 65,000 and 70,000 by 2030. The figures were published alongside BT’s half-year results on Thursday 5 November.
Profits up, cash flow down
Pre-tax profits rose 12% to £1.1bn in the six months to September, which the source attributes to the job cuts. Revenue increased by only 1%, to £8.8bn. BT’s finances remain under pressure, however. Normalised free cash flow, the money left after running and investing in the business, fell 59% to £236m. Debt rose by £1bn to £21bn.
Ms Kirkby said the company was making strong progress despite a challenging market. “Our UK-centric strategy and transformation is clearly delivering with £312 million of annualised savings achieved in the first half, as we continue to simplify and modernise,” she said.
BT maintained its full-year forecasts and raised its interim dividend by 2% to 2.5p a share. Its shares rose by as much as 6% after the announcement and reached a five-year high during Thursday’s trading, according to The Guardian. The newspaper’s analysis shows they have gained more than 70% since Ms Kirkby became chief executive in February 2024. The Guardian also reported that her pay package more than doubled to £5.6m in the previous financial year, the largest chief-executive award at the company in more than a decade. That figure was not a new pay decision announced with Thursday’s results.
The scale of the savings programme
BT is targeting £3.5bn in gross annualised cost savings by March 2030. Its latest financial statement shows the target has been adjusted from £3.7bn because the company is separating its international operations, so the revised figure does not necessarily represent a smaller ambition. The company has so far achieved £1.7bn in cumulative annualised savings, at an implementation cost of about £800m, according to TelecomTV.
BT’s workforce stood at about 130,000 in 2024, including contractors, according to the Shropshire Star. The restructuring is expected to take the total, including international operations, to roughly 75,000 by 2030. Excluding the international business being separated, the target is 65,000 to 70,000. The two sets of figures cannot be compared directly.
The Guardian reported that the latest reductions were concentrated in Openreach, where fewer workers are needed as the nationwide fibre-optic construction programme moves past its peak.
Total direct staff costs fell by £99m, or about 4.8%, to £1.956bn in the six months to September, from £2.055bn a year earlier. Wages and salaries fell by £74m, to £1.603bn. Marketing and sales costs went the other way, rising by £36m to £154m.
Openreach lines and the fibre rollout
Openreach lost 366,000 broadband lines in the first half of the financial year, including 175,000 between July and September. BT still expects about 800,000 line losses over the full year. According to MarketScreener, the figure does not mean that 366,000 BT customers cancelled their broadband, because Openreach is the wholesale network used by several providers. BT’s own consumer broadband base fell by only 7,000 customers over the six months. Its postpaid mobile base grew by 86,000 and television customers rose by 26,000. Average monthly broadband revenue per customer fell 3% to £40.80, which BT partly attributed to lower voice-service revenue and strong competition. Mobile revenue per customer rose 3% to £19.80.
Openreach has now connected more than 10 million homes and businesses to full-fibre broadband, about 1.1 million more than at the start of the financial year. Its full-fibre network passes 24.1 million premises, with roughly 41% taking a connection, according to The Guardian. BT is aiming for 25 million premises by the end of the financial year. BT’s retail full-fibre customer base grew by 574,000 to 4.7 million households, and full fibre now makes up 54% of its retail broadband base. Openreach’s repair workload fell 16% year on year, and network energy consumption dropped 7%.
The TalkTalk rescue
BT recently stepped in to rescue its rival TalkTalk from administration. The deal, completed on 5 October, is expected to cost BT about £400m this financial year and makes it responsible for maintaining services for 2.5 million TalkTalk customers. BT’s accounts say the figure includes the purchase consideration, ongoing funding commitments, administration expenses and other transaction costs.
BT does not yet have operational control of TalkTalk. Its half-year accounts reveal that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has imposed a Pre-emptive Action Order requiring TalkTalk and PlatformX to be managed independently while it examines the transaction. Because the deal took place after the reporting period, it is not included in BT’s September results, and BT cannot consolidate TalkTalk’s figures until it gains control.
About 900 TalkTalk employees were expected to transfer to BT. Sky News reported that the deal would protect those jobs, which are mainly in Salford, but BT has not confirmed a permanent employment guarantee for every transferred worker.
Ministers intervened because a collapse risked disrupting emergency and healthcare services, according to a parliamentary statement on 12 October. It cited ambulance communications, hospital services, medical alarms and the ability to make emergency calls. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice under the Enterprise Act 2002, meaning the deal is being examined for its possible effect on essential telecommunications infrastructure as well as for competition. The government has also proposed adding telecommunications continuity as a specific public-interest consideration under merger law.
The CMA was told to report to ministers by 19 October 2026, but BT’s 5 November report still described the regulatory review as ongoing. A final clearance decision should not be assumed.
Pensions and the Verizon venture
BT’s pension-accounting deficit fell from £4.2bn in March to £3.2bn in September, which the group largely attributes to scheduled contributions. A separate funding assessment put the BT Pension Scheme’s deficit at £2.7bn in June 2026. The two figures use different measures and are not interchangeable.
BT announced an agreement to reduce the funding deficit to roughly £300m through zero-coupon bonds and about £300m of additional funding on a net-present-value basis. It aims to keep the scheme on course for full funding by 2030. Scheduled pension contributions of about £780m, along with the annual dividend, were among the main reasons net debt rose over the half-year, the company said.
In June 2026, BT agreed to combine its international enterprise operations with those of the US telecoms group Verizon in a joint venture owned equally by both companies. The deal is expected to complete in the second half of calendar year 2027. Until then, BT’s international unit is classed as a discontinued operation. It reported £923m in adjusted revenue in the six months to September, compared with £1.11bn a year earlier, partly because of businesses sold in the previous financial year.
