Hundreds of jobs are to go at the British Council as the organisation implements efficiency cuts.
The cultural relations and educational body, which is jointly funded by selling English language teaching services and a grant from the Foreign Office, is to lose a third of its UK workforce in the next two years.
Controversially, over 100 posts in finance and IT are to be relocated to India, as part of a consolidation of back office functions abroad.
British Council chief executive Martin Davidson said the body’s budget had been cut by 10 per cent.
A report in The Times this morning suggested the council was considering plans to further reduce its permanent UK staff by 80 per cent, but Davidson told the paper that such cuts had not been discussed by the board and, if implemented, would mean “catastrophic cuts”.
Davidson said the British Council was “not immune” to the financial pressures affecting other public sector bodies, and that reduced back office costs would help protect frontline work overseas.
"To ensure that we are spending as much as possible on programmes which build influence and opportunities for Britain internationally,” Davidson said, “we will be investing more overseas to increase our impact - and part of this investment will be paid for by reducing our running costs."
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) reacted angrily to the prospect of posts being outsourced to India. “We think it is an absolute disgrace,” said a PCS spokesman. “The British Council is an educational and cultural organisation to support British culture, but a big part of this organisation is now going to be based abroad.”
