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Virgin Media cuts 250 jobs amid £3bn Project Lightning cockup fallout

None of today's P45 recipients will be directors, say sources

UK cable giant Virgin Media is closing 30 shops and cutting 250 jobs – including a number of head office people – as a result of botching its £3bn Project Lightning superfast broadband plan.

Numerous sources got in touch with El Reg to tell us that 28 posts are being cut in Virgin’s Hammersmith HQ in London, along with the rest of the circa 220 people getting their P45s around Blighty.

One told us that bosses had “exaggerated sales numbers.”

We understand that despite the cuts in head office, none will affect directors.

A Virgin spokesman told The Register: “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.”

Earlier this year, Virgin confessed that it had overinflated the number of premises connected to the superfast broadband network by 142,000, having previously told investors that everything was running smoothly with the rollout. Construction work “had not progressed as originally understood.”

Project Lightning is supposed to cover 17 million households by 2019. In its most recent quarterly results, Virgin’s parent company Liberty Global managed to grow its operating profits by a fraction under one per cent, up to around £500m ($650m).

Four staff were suspended and an exec reshuffle took place that saw a fresh chief operating officer, Dana Strong, appointed. ®

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