[Keith]

The argument that having two studios for the four main UK bulletins is a waste could be countered that it’s covering redundancy - if B goes down then they can use Salford, and perhaps vice versa at a push?

It's probably reasonable to suggest that if something severe happened that meant the BBC couldn't broadcast from London (e.g. massive power failure and backup generators failing) then they could at least provide some News broadcasts from Salford, along with radio output.

Arguably with the regional studios now having the same look there's also the potential to use one of those studios in an emergency, or simply use USA/Singapore for extended hours.

I think it's reasonable to suggest that at least some of the changes in plans have been due to the licence fee being frozen in 2010 for six years, and frozen again in 2022 for two years. Then there was the World Service no longer being directly funded by central government, and the free over 75s licences no longer being paid for by central government (which now are only eligble to over 75s on pension credit). Presumably when plans where made for the redevelopment at NBH and its news studios they never expected such a significant real-term reduction in licence fee revenue.