ITV has responded to claims that Coronation Street and Emmerdale will axe one in 10 of their stars due to budget cuts at the broadcaster.

The Guardian reported on Thursday (24 July) that ITV had implemented a cost-cutting measure after its profits fell by 44% in the first half of the year, with the broadcaster’s programming budget reportedly being reduced from £1.25 billion to £1.23 billion.

As a result, The Sun has claimed that ITV is proposing that both soaps could each cut 10% of their permanent cast — cited as 84 for Corrie and 70 for Emmerdale — and have less scenes per episode in order to save money.

In response, ITV has told Digital Spy that the claims made in the report from The Sun are “complete speculation”.

The reports come after the broadcaster announced a shake-up to its daytime television schedule, with This Morning, Loose Women, Lorraine and Good Morning Britain all set to be impacted in the new year.

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Corrie and Emmerdale had already been hit with some big cuts due to changing budgets, with both shows set to go down from six episodes a week to five from next year.

The new streamlined schedule will kick off with a special crossover episode, and there’s a lot of speculation about who will feature in it. Though plot details are currently under wraps, the hour-long special has been described as a “celebration of the genre”.

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That announcement also led to fears that roles in front of and behind the camera could be axed, with actors union Equity confirming that it was in contact with ITV about it.

ITV boss Kevin Lygo did admit that there would likely be cuts, but the broadcaster “will do what [it] can to mitigate the impact on our people”.