Virgin Media plans to make around 200 redundancies following a management shake-up at the cable operator.
It is understood that staff at risk of losing their jobs were contacted by phone Thursday afternoon. The majority are thought to work at Virgin Media’s Hammersmith headquarters, the Telegraph reports.
The planned cuts follow the operator’s failure earlier this year to hit network expansion targets. At the end of last year, Project Lightning had connected 567,000 premises rather than the 718,00 previously claimed.
Project Lightning aims to expand cable coverage from around half to two thirds of the country by 2020.
In March staff were suspended over concerns they may have exaggerated the progress of the £3bn project. Virgin found evidence that 142,000 homes and businesses in line to be connected required more work than reported.
Virgin’s parent company Liberty Global thought construction work to lay new cables was substantially complete and that new lines only required power and plugging into its street cabinets, work it told investors would be complete in the first quarter of this year. Instead, further construction had been required, and new homes and businesses will not be able to subscribe to cable broadband until summer.
Liberty Global also overhauled Virgin Media’s senior executive team, including appointing a new chief operating officer as well as a managing director for Project Lightning.
It is understood the new leadership are now swinging the axe. A Virgin Media spokesman said: “In March we announced changes to our operating structure to simplify our business and improve how we serve customers.
“As we continue growing and creating new job opportunities, any proposed changes affecting our employees will be subject to a careful and thorough consultation process.”