BT is to cut a further £3bn in costs over the next five years after profits tumbled by almost a third at the telecoms giant. The former monopoly said it would make the cost savings by the end of 2029 after hitting a previous £3bn cost-cutting programme a year ahead of schedule. BT has already outlined plans to cut 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade, with around a fifth of workers to be replaced by artificial intelligence. It also aims to save money through shutting down its legacy copper network and through wider simplification plans. It came as the FTSE 100 company reported a 31pc drop in pre-tax profits to £1.2bn in the year to the end of March. The slump was driven by a £488m writedown in the group’s struggling business division, as well as the impact of rising interest rates on its pension scheme. BT said it accelerated its rollout of full-fibre broadband with a further one million premises passed in the last quarter, taking the total footprint to more than 14 million, with another six million underway. The company is aiming to reach 25 million homes by the end of 2026. However, it lost 491,000...