The BBC will this week announce far-reaching cuts to its website, after coming under pressure from ministers to rein in “soft news” content such as magazine articles, recipes, and travel advice.

Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the director-general, will announce on Friday that the corporation’s website “cannot be all things to all people”, and will pledge to create clear boundaries about what the BBC will not do online, after George Osborne criticised the broadcaster’s “imperial ambitions”.

The internet retreat will come in one of the most important weeks in the BBC’s history, as it awaits the publication, on Thursday, of government plans for its future size and scope. The corporation is also braced for a report from the National Audit Office, on how it has handled critical projects such as the construction of a new EastEnders set, which will be published on Tuesday.