By James Titcomb

A BT executive has said the telecoms giant’s diversity targets are partly behind its decision to move jobs from rural offices to city centres.

Howard Watson, BT’s chief networks officer, told staff that boosting diversity and inclusion was a “significant factor” in prioritising investment in cities.

BT is cutting tens of thousands of jobs as part of a “transformation” cost-cutting plan, which includes shutting or shrinking offices. 

It is removing roles in rural hubs such as Adastral Park in Martlesham, Suffolk, where it is cutting 1,100 jobs. However, it is offering staff the chance to move to a city location.

In comments made in a summer meeting and leaked to the Mail on Sunday, Mr Watson told staff BT would be able to “improve diversity [and] inclusion” by hiring in “many more places”.

When asked if diversity and inclusion initiatives influenced the location of the company’s investments, he said: “That was a significant factor in the choice of the locations.”

BT’s workforce is 25.7pc female, while 10.8pc who are from an ethnic minority and 6.5pc are disabled. It plans to increase this to 32pc female, 13pc ethnic minority and 10pc disabled by 2025.

Its new chief executive, Allison Kirkby, has £220,000 in bonus payments tied to diversity and inclusion targets.

A BT spokesman said: “We’re investing to deliver a modern Adastral Park, recognising it remains an essential site for the success of BT Group. Our need to relocate some roles reflects UK-wide efforts to focus investment into fewer but more modern buildings for our people.

“Locating these are the heart of the widest pools of regional talent will enable BT Group to recruit a workforce with the range of future skills we need and fully representative of the customers we support.”

BT has said it plans to cut 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade from a workforce of 130,000. 

Its reductions at Adastral Park, a former RAF base, have been criticised by unions who said the company had failed to provide “reasonable justification” for the plans.

A large portion of the reductions are due to the company’s full-fibre rollout coming to an end, but BT has said that thousands of roles will be replaced by artificial intelligence.