BT doubles boss’s pay despite £3.7bn cost-cutting drive

BT chief executive Allison Kirkby received a £5.6m pay package last year, more than double the £2.5m she earned a year earlier, as the telecoms giant accelerated a sweeping cost-cutting programme designed to strip billions from the business.

According to the FTSE 100 group’s annual report, Kirkby was paid £5.58m for the year to 31 March 2026, up from £2.49m in the previous year.

The package included £1.1m in salary, pension and benefits, a £1.08m annual bonus and £3.25m from long-term share awards.

The rise comes as BT presses ahead with one of the largest restructuring programmes in UK plc, having recently increased its cost-saving target from £3bn to £3.7bn and extended the programme through to 2030.

The company has already delivered £1.5bn of annual savings and said its workforce had fallen by seven per cent over the past year to around 108,000 employees.

BT previously said it expected total headcount to fall to between 75,000 and 90,000 by the end of the decade as automation and artificial intelligence reshape operations.

Transformation ‘ahead of plan’

BT has argued the cuts are helping fund a major overhaul of the business as it invests heavily in fibre broadband and new mobile infrastructure.

The group reported revenue of £19.7bn for the year, down from £20.4bn, while pre-tax profit rose eight per cent to £1.4bn.

It maintained guidance for improving cash generation over the coming years and recently unveiled a new shareholder returns policy.

In her annual report statement, Kirkby said BT had continued to transform “ahead of plan”, pointing to record fibre rollout and improving customer satisfaction.

The company said it had exceeded its original transformation objectives, prompting management to raise the overall savings target by a further £700m.

BT’s remuneration report showed Kirkby earned 49 per cent of the maximum available annual bonus opportunity after meeting a range of customer and transformation targets.

The group said bonus outcomes reflected progress on earnings, cash flow, customer satisfaction and cost-saving initiatives.

The company also disclosed that Kirkby will receive a three per cent salary increase from June, her first since becoming chief executive in February 2024.

The disclosure is likely to attract scrutiny from investors and unions alike, given the scale of BT’s ongoing restructuring efforts.

While the company has stressed that the latest round of savings will not increase the number of planned job cuts, it has indicated staffing levels are now likely to end up at the lower end of its previously announced workforce range.

BT has maintained that the transformation programme is essential to remain competitive as it battles customer losses and mounting pressure from alternative broadband providers, while simultaneously investing billions of pounds in the UK’s digital infrastructure.

Kirkby said recently that the company was “transforming ahead of plan, offsetting headwinds while successfully competing”, as BT seeks to balance network investment, shareholder returns and cost discipline.