[Andrew]

I imagine if accurate these local radio changes may not go down too well with politicians, many of whom I imagine quite enjoy the platform it gives them to speak to their constituents.  Ultimately though the need to save money and make additional cuts comes from the licence fee freeze, which has been made worse with inflation at +10%. 

If there is to be more shared programmes I'd prefer it was combining counties roughly in line with regional news, rather than being across the entire England. (e.g. BBC Radio Cambridgeshire having a shared programme with just Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Three Counties.)

I’d agree, for example in Yorkshire, a programme airing across the whole Look North region would still be fairly local, and still have that northern feel. I imagine it’d be the same in other parts of the country

But an England show being like a sub-par version of Radio 2/4/5 wouldn’t serve any purpose, and simulcasting 5 Live would have been a good idea in the days when it was only on MW, but I’d imagine the vast majority of people have DAB now so it’s available in full quality already.

Will they also still be able to resource ‘emergency programmes’ like when there has been floods and bad weather. Not if there is nobody left except a newsreader from 2pm onwards