Like some of you I do not know quite what this terse BBC item is on about.
There is nothing obvious there to suggest whether this is a fly on the wall insider information, a report or a release from NPAS. Whether it is happening as we speak, a plan or a project.
However, what this report does not mention is cutting airframes. Whether the proposal is to retain all or most of the air assets [by number] but to place all of them in less bases.
If times are hard there are savings to be made on base rents and stores logistics etc. let alone the need to duplicate any planned operation wide technology upgrades. That fits in with the mooted additional aircraft at Lippitts Hill and with some of the original, as yet unseen, proposals to co-locate in the Midlands.
Get rid of Boreham [where the gravel extraction gets closer daily], Pembrey [too close to St Athan and never in the plan anyway], Sheffield [never in the plan] and Birmingham [in the plan] all make some sense but the BBC angle does not really put that across.
The quote from CS Whitehouse suggests this is an official announcement only to the BBC but its strange that just the one source has it unless there are expectations that some pop star might be due for a search!