BBC Squanders £M's Bribing Staff to Move North

[Teddy Bear]

The reason given for the BBC to move its main studio from London to Salford in Manchester is as follows:

An army of staff - departments including sport, learning and children's TV as well as parts of Radio 5 Live - is being moved more than 200 miles up the M6 from London to Salford Quays on the outskirts of Manchester; part of an ongoing strategy, we are told, to make the corporation less 'London-centric', less 'southern', and more 'devolved', 'diverse', and 'democratic'.

Not only that this move and producing programmes from there will cost well over an additional £1 billion, but now it turns out that staff are understandably reluctant to want to move from their established homes in the South just to be PC.

Funny how the BBC staff like to convince us about the necessity to be PC, but when it affects them they're not so keen.

Funny too that former Cabinet minister Hazel Blears (MP for Salford and Eccles) spearheaded the calls for a 'media city' with the BBC as its centrepiece in her own backyard. She argued that the charter should only be renewed on condition that the BBC's move north went ahead.

Despite how completely ridiculous and asinine this move is, given that if staff find it difficult to be ' less 'London-centric', less 'southern', and more 'devolved', 'diverse', and 'democratic'' then they should be FIRED - not bribed. Otherwise what's the point?

One also has to wonder why the BBC felt it necessary to spend an additional £1 billion pound renovating their London studio. Amazing what you can do when you don't have to actually use profits to spend money. Out of £3.4 billion received from the licence fee, you can understand why there's so little left to actually make good programmes.

It perfectly illustrates how absolutely stupid is the government - any of them, and the BBC - not to mention the public who continue to support them without a murmur.

How your millions are being squandered to bribe reluctant BBC staff to move up north

By Paul Bracchi and Tim Stewart

They call it the Canary Wharf of the North: a gleaming landscape of glass skyscrapers, office blocks, hotels, shops, piazzas, penthouse apartments and, of course, the BBC's new headquarters.

An army of staff - departments including sport, learning and children's TV as well as parts of Radio 5 Live - is being moved more than 200 miles up the M6 from London to Salford Quays on the outskirts of Manchester; part of an ongoing strategy, we are told, to make the corporation less 'London-centric', less 'southern', and more 'devolved', 'diverse', and 'democratic'.

But the bottom line? The cost of producing programmes such as Match Of The Day and Blue Peter from Salford instead of, say, Shepherd's Bush?

About £1 billion - to watch exactly the same shows, but made in different studios.

Even the Guardian newspaper, unofficial mouthpiece of the BBC, has expressed dismay ('politically correct, but practically duff' is how it described the BBC's controversial journey North).

Could there be a more scandalous waste of public money, especially in the current economic climate?

Only now is the legacy of that decision coming home to roost.

Many household names, unwilling or unable to make the move, are threatening to resign; ditto hundreds of rank and file staff; and senior executives stand accused of hypocrisy after it emerged they will not be relocating their own families.

Among those executives is Peter Salmon ( director of BBC North, salary: £430,000), the man overseeing the entire Salford project, who will be renting a flat in the Manchester area at the licence-payers' expense.

All this, and less than six months before the BBC is to begin broadcasting from Salford. How did we arrive at such a shambles?

Well, behind all the 'regional rhetoric' is the grubby hand of New Labour. Salford, critics argue, was little more than a sop to the previous government, when the BBC charter was being renegotiated six years ago.

Salford Quays was identified as one of four possible sites for a northern headquarters in 2005; with another one in Salford and two others in Manchester.

The following year, the shortlist was reduced to two, then one. Former Cabinet minister Hazel Blears (MP for Salford and Eccles) spearheaded the calls for a 'media city' with the BBC as its centrepiece in her own backyard.

She argued that the charter should only be renewed on condition that the BBC's move north went ahead.

The project equalled jobs and regeneration for Greater Manchester. In other words, politics and votes, not just programmes and viewers, were at the heart of the move.

So it was decided the BBC would head north at a time when the economy was about to head due south.

The corporation would lease three new high-tech office buildings in the canal-side development, with the final go-ahead granted in 2007.

Those are the bare facts about the BBC's move north. But it's not the full story. It would be difficult to imagine a more problematic or controversial journey.

To begin with, 1,500 staff had to be persuaded, or bribed, depending on your point of view, to go to Salford.

One BBC veteran told us how he and his colleagues were taken on 'all-expenses paid' trips to Manchester last year.

This involved being shown around the city over two days. One night in a city centre hotel, an evening meal (between £40 and £50-a-head) at the trendy Malmaison brasserie, 'wives and partners welcome'.

'Even people who had already decided they wouldn't be making the move to Manchester went on these tours because it meant two days off work,' said the BBC veteran.

Among the places to live was Salford Quays itself, where there are a number of swish apartments.

'It's a fantastic site, one of the best I've worked on, if not the best,' says the estate agent showing us around a flat on the 19th floor of a 22-storey block where a number of BBC employees - including, it is rumoured, Peter Salmon - may soon be taking up residence.

So how much do you think it would cost to rent this three-bedroom pad with chrome fittings, balcony, and concierge service?
BBC in Salford

All change: Work continues on the BBC's new site in Salford Quays, which is scheduled to open in 2011

Is it: (a) £1,200-a-month with an extra £30-a-week thrown in for a car parking space; or (b) absolutely nowt.

You can probably guess. The answer is (a) for the rest of us and (b) if you work for the BBC.

Staff will be eligible for expenses of up to £1,900-a month to cover rent, bills, and a weekly return to the South for a maximum of two years.

You could even afford to live in Manchester's tallest building, the 554ft Beetham Tower (£1,750-a-month for a two-bedroomed flat) where Everton captain Phil Neville has a penthouse; or a five-bedroom detached house (£1,995-a-month) not far from Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson in Wilmslow.

Or a four-bedroomed semi in Worsley (£1,200-a-month), the exclusive suburb where former residents include David Beckham.

Not surprisingly, the BBC scheme has been described as the 'Rolls-Royce' of relocation packages' by experts in the industry.

'I have never come across one where rent is guaranteed for two years. It is usually for no more than six months at most and only then for a small number of key personnel,' says one.

Licence-payers with high blood pressure should stop reading now or take a deep breath, for the BBC's generosity doesn't end there.

If, after two years, employees decide to buy that apartment in the same tower block as Phil Neville or that semi in David Beckham's old neighbourhood, they will be paid up to £8,000 in a tax-free lump sum to cover costs such as mortgage administration charges, legal fees, and carpets and curtains.

Staff will be eligible for expenses of up to £1,900-a-month to cover rent, bills, and a weekly return to the South for a maximum of two years.

Their former homes down south, meanwhile, will be sold, via a specialist relocation company, with the BBC bearing the loss if the property sells for less than 85 per cent of the market valuation ( established by at least two independent surveyors).

Licence-payers aside, what do you think BBC staff already working in and around Manchester - the poor relations you might call them - make of it all?

Many of them will be moving to Salford Quays to do exactly the same jobs as their counterparts from London; only with fewer perks.

On top of everything else, the southern brigade have been told they can keep the 'London- weighting' element of their salaries, worth up to £4,000-a-year.

This the reaction of Steve Saul, a journalist working at BBC Radio Manchester. No doubt, he speaks for many others. 'I can't believe staff [from London] will be given £1,900-a-month for two years to cover rent, have utility bills paid and be treated to a weekly return trip to London,' he said in the BBC's in-house magazine, Ariel.

'A quick online search reveals that you can rent a six-bedroomed house in the decent areas of Greater Manchester for that money, or perhaps even a lavish penthouse.

'What's to stop someone from claiming the full allowance, despite renting for a grand a month, and pocketing a £900 bonus? Over two years, I reckon they'd be better off to the tune of £30,000.

'Spare a thought for your new colleagues in the north, having to travel further to work on poorer public transport links, costing extra money and time to work alongside people [at Salford Quays] you know are raking it in.'

So a happy and united workforce, then. When everything is taking into consideration, it could cost the BBC - in other words, us - in excess of £50,000 for every member of staff who moves from London.

Even so, only about half of the 1,500 employees earmarked to go will do so.

The rest have refused to comply and will receive redundancy notices - probably next month.

The one person everyone thought would be relocating is former BBC One controller Peter Salmon.

Over the past months, he has been hosting seminars and appearing on in-house videos waxing lyrical about the benefits of moving north. He should know.

He is a window cleaner's son from Burnley who is married to actress Sarah Lancashire, from Oldham, Lancashire, who made her name as Raquel in Coronation Street.

'When I left the North-west, I never dreamed for a moment I would end up working for the BBC,' Salmon wrote in a recent newspaper article.
Peter Salmon and Sarah Lancashire

Peter Salmon: The BBC controller, married to former Coronation Street actress Sarah Lancashire, will not be moving to the north, but will rent a flat in Manchester

'It felt too distant, too remote, too upper-crust and above all too southern for someone like me.

'The corporation has come a long way in addressing issues of elitism and diversity but there is still some way to go.'

One way for the BBC to address the problem of how to represent the whole of the nation, he argued, was to have a strong regional presence: 'Where you [that is the BBC] plant your feet is important.'

In fact, Mr Salmon will be keeping at least one foot in the family's £1.85 million home in Twickenham, South-West London, while he rents a flat in Manchester.

His decision, when it became public knowledge last week, was greeted with a mixture of disbelief and anger by BBC staff.

One text message from a senior executive working alongside Mr Salmon to a colleague who spoke to the Mail epitomised the mood. 'He has made a complete t*** of himself,' it read.

So much for leading by example. Could it get any worse?

Almost certainly.

As we have already said, sport is one of the departments that is being relocated. But just 12 months after the sports team move in, many journalists will be forced to make the 400-mile trip to cover the Olympics, which are being staged in London.

The BBC, insiders claim, will be forced to pay out more than £2.5 million in flights, train fares, taxis, and accommodation for them.

And all because the BBC wants to score 'regional brownie points', to borrow the words of one commentator.

But isn't the country - all parts of the country - already fully represented both on and off screen?

Take, for example, children's programmes.

The Story Of Tracy Beaker, the TV adaption of Jacqueline Wilson's book about a ten-year-old tomboy, was filmed in Newcastle. Dr Who and its spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures are shot in Cardiff. Dennis and Gnasher: Edinburgh. Shaun The Sheep: Bristol. Muddle Earth, a parody on The Lord Of The Rings: Manchester.

And so it goes on.

The controversy over Salford deepened this week when it was revealed that Sian Williams is to quit presenting BBC Breakfast News.

The 45-year-old mother-of-four is the latest on the show to express reluctance to move. Her co-host, Bill Turnbull, also voiced concern about the relocation plans, which were sprung on staff three weeks ago after bosses found they had more space at their Salford Quays base than first thought.

They will not be the last.

It was Chris Hollins, BBC Breakfast's sports presenter, who recently bought a house in London, who perhaps summed up the situation best: 'What is most disappointing is that I don't think [the move] is an economic decision or an editorial decision; it's merely a political decision.'

A politically correct one, he might have added.

[Teddy Bear]

At a time when the whole country is in financial depression and struggling to maintain some kind of standard of living, where 'cuts' are the order of the day trying to deal with the massive overspend of previous government decisions, the BBC decides the best way to spend a third of the licence fee is moving various studios around the country.

No we won't get more quality programming, or anything that gives us better value, in fact we will paying a lot more to make future programmes of the same shit we've been getting. Do you really care if the broadcast comes from London or Glasgow?

According to BBC director of vision Jana Bennett defended the plans recently, saying: ‘The message from the audience is clear: they love it when they see their communities and landscapes and hear their voices on our TV programmes.

‘BBC network television programmes will reflect and celebrate life right across the UK in greater breadth and depth.’

I wonder how much of audience 'message' is truly reflected by her statement. The BBC has just asked to rake off some of the aid money intended for starving countries to boost the money they have available for the World Service.

Just think for a moment about what the BBC is trying to justify here, and the wisdom of their decision makers.

Here's the latest from the Daily Mail on the subject followed by a strong critique by Melanie Phillips. Like shooting fish in a barrel really.

BBC's £1bn exodus: Huge bill for moving shows and staff around the country... with £157m spent on hotels and taxis

By Liz Thomas
Last updated at 10:02 AM on 7th February 2011

The BBC is to spend more than £1billion moving shows and staff out of London in an attempt to meet proposed quotas for half of all programming to be made in the regions by 2016.

The corporation is set to spend as much as £157million simply on hotel and taxi bills for its presenters, executives and studio guests, much of it at the proposed new studios.

Executives have pledged that in the next five years 50 per cent of the programming budget will be spent outside the capital and have already started migrating top shows.

But it requires sending staff and guests who live in London around the country – and means the licence fee payer will be funding travel and hotel bills.

The moves include switching production for the Hampton Court and Chelsea flower shows to Birmingham.

Critics have accused the BBC of ‘geographical correctness’ and wasting public money in trying to show that the licence fee is relevant to everyone.

Some high-profile presenters have also appeared doubtful about the moves involving them.

Sian Williams, of BBC Breakfast, which is moving to Salford, near Manchester, has said: ‘I haven’t made a decision yet. I need to sit down with my family and talk it through.’

Colleague Chris Hollins said: ‘What is most disappointing is that I don’t think (the move) is an economic decision or an editorial decision; it’s merely a political decision.’

The decentralisation plans have already cost millions – the BBC has spent £188million creating new studios in Pacific Quays, Glasgow.

The National Audit Office revealed that the Media City site in Salford is likely to cost £877million to build and run, while plans to rent and run a drama village in Cardiff Bay are expected to cost in excess of £10million.

The BBC spent an additional £700,000 on a charm offensive to try to woo staff to consider moving to Salford, where it is moving 2,300 staff and major departments.

It has lavished licence fee money on hotels, coach trips, tour guides, lunches and information packs to persuade staff and their families to relocate.

The BBC has spent £700,000 on a charm offensive to try to woo staff to consider moving to Salford, where it is moving 2,300 staff and major departments

The bill for the ‘familiarisation visits’ for more than 1,500 people includes £100,000 on hotels, £30,000 on dinners, £32,000 on lunches, £30,000 on coach trips around Salford, more than £50,000 on ‘local area experts’, £140,000 on ‘event management’ and £3,000 on tram fares.

The £157million budget for travel and hotels was revealed in new tender documents made public by the corporation under EU rules.

SHOWS ON THE MOVE
The following BBC programmes and departments are earmarked for these cities by 2016. An asterisk indicates the show moved within the past year:

CARDIFF: Crimewatch, Casualty.

GLASGOW: Question Time, Imagine, Motorway Cops, Saturday Lottery Show, The Review Show* (formerly known as Newsnight Review), Weakest Link*, presented by Anne Robinson.

BIRMINGHAM: Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Flower Show.

BELFAST: Extra episodes of Panorama, Sunday morning religious output, special reports for The One Show.

SALFORD: BBC Breakfast, CBBC and CBeebies, Radio Five Live, BBC Sport.

It states that hotels will be needed in cities such as Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, and Bristol, which will all have big BBC studios.

The broadcaster is supposed to be cutting back on its expenses as part of cost-cutting measures implemented to plug a funding shortfall after agreeing to a six-year licence fee freeze at the current £145.50.

But with its sport department moving to Salford, it will have to spend between £3million and £5million sending production back to London to cover the Olympic Games.

Licence fee payers will foot the bill for the flights, train fares, taxis and accommodation for up to 500 employees making the 400mile round trip.

BBC director of vision Jana Bennett defended the plans recently, saying: ‘The message from the audience is clear: they love it when they see their communities and landscapes and hear their voices on our TV programmes.

‘BBC network television programmes will reflect and celebrate life right across the UK in greater breadth and depth.’

A BBC spokesman said that the figures for spending on taxis and hotels were a maximum estimate rather than a guaranteed amount.

He added: ‘The BBC is committed to ensuring value for money from the licence. We have reduced spend on hotel and taxis in the past year.’

* The man used by the BBC to oversee the relocation of its staff to Salford lives 4,000 miles away in America. Guy Bradshaw, 44, commutes to the UK from Kentucky and is employed through a company called Equals Consulting with which the BBC has a contract. The corporation pays for his accommodation when he stays in Salford and Manchester, and for his travel in the UK.

Now for Melanie

February 7, 2011
The BBC's move north is lunacy - and shows how catastrophically it has lost its way

Daily Mail, 7 February 2011

Last Thursday evening, I appeared on the BBC One flagship political TV panel show Question Time.

To take part, my four ­fellow panellists and I — along with the presenter David Dimbleby, the ­editor and production team — had to travel to Workington in Cumbria, from where the show was being transmitted.

From London, this required a three-hour train journey and then continuing on for another hour or so by car — altogether some eight hours of travelling if you count the return trip.

Such long and time-consuming journeys are accepted as very much part of the deal when you do Question Time. That’s because its signature ­characteristic is that it takes place in a ­different part of the UK every week.

More than most BBC shows, therefore, it is quintessentially a ­programme for the entire nation.

So it’s beyond absurd that the entire ­production team for the show is being forced to relocate from West London to Glasgow on the grounds that the BBC must ­demonstrate it is not ‘Londoncentric’.

More than ridiculous, this is also ­extraordinarily stupid and potentially ­disastrous. For the mainstay of the ­Question Time weekly agenda is British politics.

To do their job properly, the ­programme-­makers must have constant access to ­government ministers, MPs and the rest of the political world — which is based in Westminster.

Yet now the team is having to relocate hundreds of miles away, making such access impossible. They will no longer be able to keep their ear to the political ground.

At a stroke, their ability to do their job will be crippled. They might as well be exiled to another country. Indeed, they will be in another country.

Moreover, the show will be divorced not just from Westminster, but from the BBC News department, being swallowed up instead by BBC Scotland.

This matters. Scotland may believe it is the centre of the universe, but compared with the mighty BBC News — whose writ runs in just about every country in the world other than north of the Tweed — BBC Scotland is a parochial sideshow.

Question Time is not perfect, but it has become an institution in its own right — shedding an invaluable weekly light on ­public opinion and holding public figures to account.

If it loses its clout and ­professional edge, the most influential people in the UK will no longer want to take part.

The first casualty of this madness has been the show’s editor Ed Havard, who resigned last week in protest.

Havard, with his long background in BBC current affairs, is one of the most outstandingly gifted editors ­Question Time has ever had.

The prospect of the BBC finding a replacement who is as able and ­experienced in national political programming — and crucially, who will also want to live in ­Glasgow — is remote, frankly.

There is even a risk that David Dimbleby, the show’s long-standing and ­irreplaceable host, will decide to call it a day because of the damage this relocation will do.

This is not about whether Glasgow or Scotland are attractive places: they are.

Nor does it merely prove — as the Scots are already screaming — that the English are just hopelessly and arrogantly insular.

The fact is that even SNP politicians who want to bend the ear of BBC executives or political figures generally come to London — simply because that is where such ­grandees are concentrated.

And when Question Time goes to ­Glasgow, the extra cost of all those ­programme staff travelling back and forth to London — as well as around the country — will be enormous.

This is far more than a row about one TV programme. The relocation of Question Time is but the latest example of the BBC’s mystifying — and profligate — obsession with scattering the corporation to the four winds.

In a relocation scheme costing upwards of £600 million, it is moving shows such as Match Of The Day, Blue Peter and BBC One’s Breakfast to a new ‘media village’ in Salford.

You really do have to rub your eyes at this. BBC Breakfast is currently transmitted from studios in West London.

Since most of the national figures the show wants to interview live in the London area, how many of them are going to be prepared to travel to Salford to sit on the BBC Breakfast sofa for between ­approximately four and eight minutes at a maximum?

Precisely. And interviews ‘down the line’ from a remote studio simply are not the same thing at all.

The cost of all this, moreover, is astronomical. To ­persuade staff to move, the BBC has sent around 1,500 of them with their families on weekend breaks to Salford.

The bill so far includes more than £100,000 on hotels, £30,000 on dinners, £32,000 on lunches, £30,000 on coach trips of Salford, more than £50,000 on ‘local area experts’, £140,000 on ‘event management’, £3,000 on tram fares and £100,000 on rail fares.

Yet unsurprisingly, around half the staff slated to move are apparently refusing to go.

And, to take the proverbial biscuit, we learned in yesterday’s newspapers that the person in charge of this upheaval, ‘migration manager’ Guy Bradshaw, has himself chosen to live 4,000 miles away in ­Kentucky, U.S., from where he currently commutes to oversee the enforced internal exile of BBC staff.

In the face of such uproar, one can only ask: ‘Why?’

Of course, it is only right and proper that the BBC should maintain an ­organisational presence around the country. But this is taking it to idiotic lengths.

The BBC’s Director-General Mark Thompson has said by way of explanation: ‘The BBC is for the whole country, not just ­London.’

But you could say exactly the same about Parliament. Yet if Parliament were split into bits that were hived off round the country, there would be chaos.

According to University of Kent professor of journalism and former BBC employee Tim Luckhurst, this has all happened because the previous Labour government wanted to gerrymander the electoral map by creating well-paid, publicly funded jobs in Labour constituencies.

Moreover, the BBC is funding this lunacy by butchering the World Service — the jewel in the crown that for so many ­suffering under tyranny round the world has long been the one thing that has kept their hope of freedom alive.

It is hard not to see in this BBC debacle a metaphor for the nation itself.

Just as the BBC was bullied by Westminster into putting a national institution at risk through such regional fragmentation, so Westminster itself was bullied into ­fragmenting ­Britain’s constitution and endangering its national identity through the ill-thought through devolution project.

And the BBC has surely given in to this bullying by Westminster for the same reason that Westminster itself gave in to the constitutional bullying by Scotland.

At Westminster, there was a loss of self-belief in Britain as a nation, a philistine ­ignorance of its history and a demoralisation about its values.

All of that created the ­climate for an appeasement of Scottish anti-English bigotry in the short-sighted belief that this would gain political advantage.

In similar vein, the BBC long ago lost sight of its historic role as an institution pledged to the highest ideals of public ­service and instead chose to fragment itself in order to play a market it was originally founded to ignore.

Now it is fragmenting itself geographically, too, in order to appease the forces of regional correctness — but just like the nation it serves, it is thus merely showing that it has catastrophically lost its way.

[Teddy Bear]

Not only is the BBC squandering so much money moving people to new studios all over the country to satisfy the Labour supporters, they're going to waste even more flying them back for certain programmes, like Question Time, as the following article illustrates.

Besides the obvious increased frustration with this sick propaganda machine for this stupid waste, there is also the question about why do these producers need to 'brief' Dimbleby for Question Time?
It's a topical programme with questions put by the audience, and answered for the most part by a panel of usually 5 participants. Why does Dimbleby need to be around Westminster prior to running the show, and if this is the case why should the BBC move it up north to begin with?

And they have the blind arrogance to believe that they should be controlling the way people think.

BBC planning to spend thousands flying Question Time production staff to brief David Dimbleby each week 'after he refuses to travel to Scotland'

By Rob Cooper

The BBC will fly up to four Question Time producers down from Scotland every week to brief David Dimbleby in Westminster.

Bosses will send the programme makers down every Wednesday and put them in hotels for the night so they can discuss Thursday evening's show.

The 72-year-old presenter is determined to stay in London where he has the ear of senior politicians who regularly appear on the show.

Managers are pushing ahead with plans to shift production of the show to Glasgow - even though the programme's editor Ed Harvard recently resigned because of the move.

Mr Dimbleby is currently re-negotiating his contract with the BBC, where he has worked for the last 50 years, and his new deal stipulates that he will not have to travel to Scotland, The Times revealed.

He was reportedly on the verge of quitting his role on the Thursday evening debate show in protest at plans to move the show north.

Last week the presenter said: 'It's like trying to report on Hollyrood (the Scottish Parliament) from London. You have to be around the swirl of Westminster life and have access to the highest political levels.'

As Question Time is filmed in different towns around the country some of the staff shifted to Glasgow are only expected to spend two days in the office each week.

The BBC have denied that four production staff will have to travel down from London every week for the Wednesday briefing although it was accepted that at least one person will make the 330 mile journey to London.

The show, which David Dimbleby has fronted since 1994, will no longer be produced by BBC News but will fall within the remit of BBC Scotland.

A source told The Times: 'With all due respect to BBC Scotland, they are not in a position to grasp the nuances of Westminster politics.'

The BBC are attempting to shift production of shows to the regions so that 50 per cent of programme expenditure is outside London by 2016.

Plans to move Question Time were first mooted in 2004 but they were put on ice amid fierce opposition.

Most of the show’s staff are set to lose their jobs. They will be able to reapply but many will not be prepared to move to Scotland.

Apart from Thursday’s live show, Question Time, produced by Mentorn, is currently based at Hammersmith.

When veteran presenter Mr Dimbleby recently had to miss a week from Question Time, John Humphrys stood in for him. But if he did walk out over the move to Scotland there is talk of a switch to a younger presenter, with Jeremy Vine a leading contender.

[Teddy Bear]

As the Salford move approaches, it becomes ever more evident just what a fiasco it is proving to be, despite constant denials by the BBC that this is the case. It is only the fact that it is publicly funded that enables them to do this, since if it was a private company making similar decisions, it would simply go out of business.

BBC’s stars take a dim view of northern lights
Robert Mendick and Jonathan Wynne-Jones investigate Auntie’s £877 million move to Salford

For a Friday-night party, the mood was decidedly subdued. But then it was not so much a party as a wake. About 30 members of the BBC’s Breakfast show had gathered in a private room of a wine bar close to Television Centre in west London for a farewell party dubbed, none too subtly, “Salford or F--- It”.

Sian Williams and Chris Hollins will not be heading north
Only the day before, the programme’s team had had to decide whether they wanted to relocate from London to Salford Quays, where the corporation is about to take possession of a modern studio complex.
Fewer than half – despite a relocation package worth up to £45,600 – chose to go, among them two of its star presenters: Sian Williams, the 40-something queen of BBC early-morning television, and Chris Hollins, the sports reporter, who won Strictly Come Dancing in 2009.
Suddenly, the breakfast sofa no longer appears quite so inviting.
The breakfast team is the latest victim of the BBC’s decision to spend £877 million of licence fee payers’ money moving large chunks of the organisation 200 miles from London to Salford.

While the BBC insists the transfer has run as smoothly as could be expected, critics argue the migration has not gone to plan.
First, the executive in charge of the project has refused to relocate his family to the north.
Then there has been the realisation that much of the sports team will transfer to Salford, only to have to move back to London a few months later for the 2012 Olympics.
It doesn’t end there. The relocation package, described by some as an incentive and by others a bribe, has been generous enough to provide staff with £1,900-a-month expenses to cover rent and bills for two years.
More than half a million pounds has been spent on “all-expenses” days out in Manchester to encourage staff to make the move. Yet with many unpersuaded, redundancy payouts have totalled as much as £2 million.
The latest batch of refuseniks include Williams and Hollins, who, citing “personal reasons”, quit on Thursday. Hollins said the move, launched under a Labour government and which has created thousands of jobs in a Labour heartland, was “political”.
Many of their colleagues have opted to stay in London, despite being warned by executives that they are likely to struggle to find new jobs at the BBC.
Unsurprisingly, then, the mood at Friday’s party was rather sombre, with staff discussing their plans for the future.
“It was more a mood of commiseration than celebration,” said one partygoer.
Although the show’s presenters did not attend the party, one of them told The Sunday Telegraph they, like their colleagues, found the affair stressful.
“As you can probably guess it’s a very emotional time for everybody involved with the programme. We all have [had] some really tough decisions to make.”
Five divisions of the BBC are being shunted north, including Radio 5 Live, and the sports and children’s departments.
Many of the nation’s favourite programmes will be broadcast from the new Salford Quays studios, such as Match
of the Day (its presenter Gary Lineker is said not to be keen on commuting from his London home) and Blue Peter,
whose iconic garden will be relocated to the centre’s rooftop.
The BBC, which says the £877 million cost of the project over 20 years is value for money, argues it is right for the corporation to be less London-centric and this will help create jobs and investment in an impoverished region.
John Whittingdale, the Conservative MP and chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, approves of the new facilities and the need for the BBC to spread itself across the country. But he is scathing of the costs.
“Normally moving out of London to the north is a way of saving money, but it doesn’t seem that way in this case,” he said. “The whole thing has been a fiasco in lots of ways.” He added that the fact people overseeing the relocation were not moving sent out the wrong signals.
While Breakfast presenters such as Susanna Reid will go to Salford, presenters of other BBC shows have refused. The award-winning broadcaster Simon Mayo quit Radio 5 Live and joined Radio 2 to avoid living in Manchester while Gabby Logan, the sports presenter and mother of twins, has quit her radio show to avoid family upheavals.
The first employees will arrive at the Salford HQ – known as MediaCityUK – in May, yet the BBC’s children’s presenters are understood to be still in negotiations.
In total, the BBC is moving 1,500 jobs to Salford but only just over half that have agreed to go. It has now advertised about 750 posts on the BBC North website, prompting 50,000 applications to date.
The decision of so many staff not to go may not have been helped by the fact Peter Salmon, director of BBC North on a salary of £430,000, appeared none too keen to relocate his family.
Mr Salmon, married to the actress Sarah Lancashire with whom he lives in a £1.9 million house in south-west London, last week told The Sunday Telegraph he would rent for the first year before buying a second home in the area. He would not be drawn on whether his family would join him.
“I am renting immediately like a lot of my staff and I am buying next year,” he said. “This is not about other associated family processes, this is about my 150 per cent commitment to the project.
“I can have as many family homes as I like. I am not governed by rules or guidelines that say I can only have one home. I will be there a lot more than Monday to Friday. My job is in Salford and I shall be there as much as I need to do the job.”
He said the BBC’s television centre in west London was no longer “fit for purpose” and that the facilities in Salford would be the best in the world.
Other executives are also showing caution. Richard Deverell, BBC North’s chief operating officer, and Adrian Van Klaveren, 5 Live’s controller, will rent homes for the first two years, while the BBC’s head of sport, Barbara Slater, a former Olympic gymnast, has still to decide whether to rent or buy in the area. Of the most senior executives only Joe Godwin, director of BBC Children, has committed fully to moving to the north by buying a property there.
Last month, it emerged that the BBC’s migration manager, involved in the switch, was actually living in Kentucky in the US, working in Britain for 25 weeks a year – just under the threshold for paying UK income tax.
None of this has endeared the scheme to rank-and-file BBC staff, many of whom feel they had no choice but to make the move or else risk losing their jobs, given widespread redundancies taking place elsewhere across the corporation.
“The BBC shouldn’t be holding a gun to people’s heads saying they’ll lose their jobs if they don’t go, but there’s been a fair bit of that going on,” claimed Pete Murray, the NUJ president and BBC representative.
There are other worries, too. How, for example, will BBC Breakfast persuade top guests to travel to Salford for a 7am interview? Under the current set-up, guests can be brought in by taxi from central London with little disruption. The new schedule will mean guests having to stay overnight for an early-morning slot on the sofa.
A BBC Breakfast insider said there were serious concerns. “Many of the team think editorially it’ll be a disaster,” said the source. “Even the presenters admit it’s going to be hard to get top guests to come on the show.
“The people wanting to plug their book or album will still want to be seen, but it’s going to be much harder to get the big names who are down in London.”
In December last year, Alison Ford, editor of BBC Breakfast, warned in the BBC’s in-house magazine, Ariel, of the possible dangers ahead. “There are things we’ll have to do differently because we are in Salford,” she said. “There are certain people who at the moment are more accessible and they won’t be in the future – politicians, celebrities, opinion formers.
“Will we get Will Smith on the sofa in Salford? It would be naive of me to say: 'Oh, yes, it’ll be fine.’ It won’t be as easy as it is now.”
Peter Salmon is delighted with the progress so far, despite some glitches. Most notably, about 40 sports staff have been told their move north has been delayed by at least three months due to technical difficulties. That means some who have leased properties or even bought homes may have to commute temporarily to London.
However, Mr Salmon insisted: “It is going really well for a project this size. It is on track and on budget. I don’t want to curse it. We have never attempted anything like it before.
“When we were first embarking on the project, we were told to anticipate 30 per cent might want to move. It is now more than 50 per cent, which is a vote of confidence.
“I wish it could please everybody, but it is unavoidable with the scale of the challenge. I regret anybody who cannot see through what they have started and feels they cannot be a part of it.”

[Teddy Bear]

To this latest piece of news the BBC had 'no comment'. No doubt they are waiting for Ed Williams to get back from his $40k course at Harvard to explain really that it was a brilliant idea, and is working perfectly, and is a total benefit to the licence fee payer.

Question Of Sport back in London as guests snub new £1bn northern BBC base

The BBC is switching filming of A Question Of Sport back to London – after claims that celebrity guests invited on the quiz show were reluctant to travel up to Manchester.

The decision to bring the programme back to the capital is another setback for the Corporation’s plans to move almost half of its operations to its £1 billion new site in Salford Quays.

Sources close to the show, presented by former tennis star Sue Barker, said the BBC had been struggling to find enough contestants to take part since it started filming in Salford six months ago.

A Question Of Sport has been on our screens for more than 40 years, making it the longest-running quiz show on British TV.

The filming will take place at a studio in Television Centre, West London, but prerecorded segments will be filmed at the Olympic stadium in Stratford, East London.

Six episodes will be filmed in London ahead of the Wimbledon tennis championship later this month.

It is believed that the reason why the episodes will be filmed in the capital is that BBC executives feel that tennis stars will not travel 200 miles north to Manchester in the days leading up to Wimbledon.

Also, Ms Barker will have to be in London to present the tennis coverage for the BBC.

Some of the biggest names in the game have been booked for the shows, including former champions Martina Navratilova and Boris Becker.

Tim Henman is also a confirmed guest. Former Olympic gold medallist Lord Coe will take part in one episode.

But last night the BBC said there were no long-term plans to move A Question Of Sport back to London permanently.

The BBC source added: ‘We are only filming this one-off number of shows in London between the end of the Queen’s tour-nament and the beginning of Wimbledon.

‘But the long-term plan is for the show to stay in Manchester.’

The broadcaster’s move to its purpose-built new site in Salford has been dogged by problems and setbacks.

It is believed that the Corporation will spend at least £12 million just to find homes for its staff nearby.

A number of high-profile names at the BBC have either resigned or said they will not move to Salford.

They include Mihir Bose, the BBC sports editor, who resigned in 2009, and Breakfast show presenter Sian Williams, who has indicated she is not prepared to leave London.

The Breakfast Show, Mastermind, Radio 5 Live and Blue Peter are some of the shows moving to Salford.

In a separate development, it has emerged that BBC executives are considering scaling back Blue Peter to one show a week, instead of two, as a cost-cutting measure.

A BBC source said: ‘There is some speculation internally to scale it back but a decision has not yet been made.’

The BBC also declined to comment on rumours that Blue Peter is experiencing difficulties after its move to Salford.

Its famous garden was moved from London to the rooftop of the MediaCity complex in Salford.

But filming on the rooftop is said to be proving difficult because it is too windy there, said a source.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘We don’t have any comment to make.’

[Teddy Bear]

You'd think this following story is purely satire - an exaggerated piece to highlight BBC mindset and the state our society.

I wish it were so.
Read it and weep.

Are you sitting comfortably? BBC hires a 'CHAIR CHAMPION' to teach people how to sit

By Daily Mail Reporter

Staff from the BBC that move to the new Salford Quays complex are to be taught how to sit by a 'chair champion'.

As part of the corporation's £877million project staff at 'MediaCityUK' have been given a choice of three different high-tech chairs.

They will be given help to choose the chair that is right for them and the 'chair champion' will give guidance on how to use it properly as part of the Beeb's health and safety training.

Local councillor, Karen Garrido, leader of Salford Conservatives, said: 'What a waste of money. I can't believe we need to teach people how to sit on their chairs. They aren't children.'

Bosses at the corporation said it was part of the standard practice for inductions to new buildings and a spokesman said that the person doing the job was part of the health and safety role.

The spokesman said: 'Health and Safety training is standard practice for any organisation moving people into new premises. The BBC does not employ individual "chair champions".

'Chair adjustment is part of the overall induction process - which includes advice on using all the facilities in a new building.'

Five departments are moving north including BBC Breakfast and BBC sport as part of the project with Match of the Day, Newsround and Blue Peter all heading to MediaCityUK.

Some departments have already moved to the site where 2,300 people will eventually work.

Employees will learn which bus or tram they need to catch or how to find the base by car or bike.

As part of its preparations bosses set up six sessions covering different aspects of getting to work, under the heading Transport to MediaCityUK Briefing Day.

The day includes talks on parking and cycle provision, the city’s Metrolink light rail service, help in how to buy tickets, information on bus services and individual journey planning sessions.

[thehighlandrebel]

I can understand the b-bbc's move to Salford as it's a central location for mosques in the region and and will ease the overcrowding the staff have to endure at Finsbury Park.

[Teddy Bear]

;D

[Teddy Bear]

As usual, with every story related to this farcical decision by the BBC to make this move - GRRRRRRR.

BBC spends £6.5m relocating 549 staff to Salford... and dozens receive tens of thousands of pounds each to fund move

By Paul Revoir

The BBC has already spent £6.5million on relocation deals for just 549 staff moving to its new headquarters in Salford.

Dozens of workers have been given tens of thousands of pounds each to fund their move.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information act show that already three members of staff have received in excess of £80,000 to pay for their moves, with two getting about £85,000.

Another has received £70,000, with two others getting £67,000 and another £64,000 as the true individual cost of the move is laid bare.

The BBC’s offer to workers moving to Salford includes payments for stamp duty, estate agents fees, not to mention up to £3,000 a head to buy carpets and curtains.

Others have received up to £1,900 a month, before tax, to rent a home in the North West, in a deal which lasts for up to two years, allowing them to temporarily maintain current homes.

The corporation has even provided a house-buying scheme which sees it, through an external company, buying staff’s properties for 85 per cent of their market value.

The new figures, which cover the period up to mid-November, also show more than a dozen people have been given between £40,000 and £50,000 with almost 30 receiving between £30,000 and £40,000 and about 35 individuals in the £20,000 to £30,000 band.

The figures are set to rise further as they do not even cover the remaining 250 individuals in the first phase of the move.
BBC Presenters Sian Williams and Chris Hollins have decided to leave the breakfast news show rather than go with their jobs to the new MediaCityUK complex in Salford.

A further thousand roles are being relocated to Salford in a second phase, although it is currently unclear how many people will decide to move with their jobs.

The BBC has already moved its children’s department, sport, Radio 5 Live as well as part of its new media division to Salford and hopes to move BBC Breakfast there next month.

Broadcasting bosses had originally earmarked £30million for relocation deals and believe that they will fall well within budget for this.

Nevertheless some of the large individual payments will raise questions about the controversial move and whether the attempts to make the BBC less London-centric’ are too costly.

Some of the payments will raise questions about the controversial move and whether the attempts to make the BBC less London-centric’ are too costly

There is also a provision for temporary accommodation costs to be paid for up to six months and duplicate costs for gas, water and electricity and council tax can also covered for those caught in a housing chain.

The BBC’s scheme will pay for estate agent fees of up to 1.5 per cent of the sale price, and the £3,000 towards ‘household goods’ like carpets and curtains for those moving house.

The so-called Remote Location Allowance, allows people to receive up to £1,900 a month for two years, if they are not in a position to fully move from their London home, such as in cases where children are taking exams.

Figures provided under the Freedom of Information request, cover up to mid-November, and account for almost 550 out of about 800 people that opted to make the move as part of the first phase.

About 1,500 roles have moved from London in the initial ‘migration’,

Other costs incurred by the BBC include interest payments on bank loans for the house-buying scheme and paying tax liabilities on relocation payments.

Most up to date figures show 160 people are on remote location deals and only 30 people have taken part in the BBC’s house-buying scheme, with vast majority buying houses in the traditional way.

The Salford base has been operational since May 2011 and began broadcasting from the site in September.

The BBC says that by next month the first phase of the move will be complete.

BBC North human resources director Ken Lee said the new figures represent a ‘snapshot’ at a point in time and said the corporation’s packages had been benchmarked against other organisations.

He said the deals were not about ‘enrichment’ but making sure people did not lose any money as a result of relocating their jobs.

[Teddy Bear]

I have posted numerous examples on this site of how much the BBC has spent surrounding its move to Salford, not to mention related problems surrounding it. A cursory search brings these up:

• BBC Squanders £M's Bribing Staff to Move North
  
• BBC Salford Hotel Bills Increase 17 fold
  
• BBC 'Migration' Boss Lives 4000 Miles Away
  
• BBC Salford Move Increased Overheads by 39%
  
• Salford Staff Need Personal Security Guards
  
• 'Coming up after the latest Salford news...'
  
• 'Expense Conscious' BBC's Salford £2M Travel Bill

And as the article below shows, there's still more expense surrounding this move.

So one has to wonder how the BBC can make the statement:
A spokesman for BBC North said the move “represents value” for licence fee payers and the new headquarters had proved to be one of the corporations “most efficient and cost-effective centres”.

No doubt if it was a different media organisation reliant on public funds that was involved, we could expect the BBC to interview experts to show just how ludicrous this statement has to be, but since it's the BBC itself I won't hold my breath.

BBC staff paid up to £90,000 for move to Salford

The BBC has given staff relocating to its new £1 billion headquarters in Salford up to £90,000 each to fund their moves, according to figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws.

A total of 850 staff have been given £11 million to cover the cost of estate agents’ fees, stamp duty, furnishings, rent and other bills. Staff have also been given lump sums, worth 10 per cent of their salary, to encourage them to move.

The BBC has already moved its children’s department; sport; Radio 5 Live and BBC Breakfast, as well as part of its new media division, north to Salford. A further 1,000 people are to relocate within the next decade, meaning rising costs.


Angie Bray, a Conservative member of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, said: “I can’t help feeling that Salford is an expensive box- ticking exercise. I absolutely understand that the BBC feels the need to demonstrate that they are not entirely London-centric but the fact is the programming from Salford is not as good and it is costing an awful lot of money.”

The figures obtained show that more than 170 staff have taken advantage of the “assisted relocation” package, under which they sell their homes and the BBC covers moving costs. It has spent £1.2 million on stamp duty; £740,846 on estate agents’ fees; £497,617 on removals; £350,000 on legal fees and £305,962 on furnishings.

Staff have received a further £682,285 in one-off payment incentives to move to the North. The highest individual payment was £90,605.

A further 174 staff have taken advantage of a halfway-house deal, officially called a “remote location allowance”, under which they keep their main home in London and have rent and some of their travel expenses paid.
Each member of staff is given an allowance of up to £3,390 a month before tax, equivalent to £40,680 a year. To date, this has cost the corporation £3.3  million.

The BBC is also offering to sell houses on behalf of staff, via a third party, at a guaranteed price – equivalent to 85 per cent of the market value; licence fee payers then cover moving costs. Twenty-five members of staff have opted for the scheme, at a cost of £621,000. A further 188 have their rent in Salford paid, at a total cost of £1.1 million.

Reid, who claims the “remote location allowance”, commutes 200 miles to Salford three days a week, travelling up the night before she is due to work and returning to her partner and three children in London the following day.

The move to Salford has not been entirely smooth. Presenters Sian Williams and Chris Hollins decided to leave the breakfast news show rather than go with their jobs.

BBC Breakfast staff have complained that their concentration is being ruined by “thumping” music and their “boisterous” local colleagues.
Journalists say that they have found themselves at loggerheads with local colleagues who resent the arrival of the “big guns” from the South.
Workers were told Salford is a “different kettle of fish” from the London headquarters. Earlier this year they were offered security guards to escort them to their cars and tram stops after work.

One member of staff was shot at with an air rifle as he cycled home and a producer was chased by youths after confronting them as they tried to steal bikes.

A spokesman for BBC North said the move “represents value” for licence fee payers and the new headquarters had proved to be one of the corporations “most efficient and cost-effective centres”.
She said: “BBC North has also begun to make a positive contribution to the regional economy – creating a world-class talent pool and strengthening and supporting the region’s creative industries resulting in programmes made across the North for national audiences.”

[Teddy Bear]

Hypocrisy at the BBC is something that is rampantly visible in a variety of ways.

RICHARD KAY: BBC boss who still has not moved North

By Richard Kay

Director General of BBC North, Peter Salmon, has still not moved to Salford

As the man in charge of persuading BBC staff to relocate for its exodus to the North, Peter Salmon was roundly condemned when it emerged his own family was staying put in London.

He bristled at the criticism and assured colleagues that he would buy a house and settle permanently near the Corporation’s £1 billion base in Salford.

That was in the summer of 2010. Two and a half years later he has still not moved.

He is also just as prickly, hitting out at the ‘postcode fascists’ who insist staff should buy property in the North to show their commitment to the new base.

Asked at a conference whether he had purchased a home in the region, he said: ‘I don’t think it is about whether people buy. It is about your commitment. My intention is still to buy up there.’

He said that the BBC’s much-criticised relocation scheme, funded by the licence fee, was due to run out this spring, and he intended to buy then.

The package allowed staff with homes in the South to claim up to £1,900 a month for up to two years to rent near Salford and shuttle between there and the capital.

Salmon also defended staff who have come under fire for living in London and working at the Media City site in Salford, such as Radio Five Live’s Victoria Derbyshire, after it emerged that during some periods just 60 per cent of her shows were broadcast from the North. ‘

The bulk of Victoria’s shows are from Salford,’ he said.

‘The important thing is that you do your job properly. You can live in London, you can live in Lowestoft.
The BBC's much criticised relocation scheme to Salford in Greater Manchester (pictured) was funded by the taxpayer

The BBC's criticised relocation scheme to Salford in Greater Manchester (pictured) was funded by the taxpayer

But you need to be based in the [Salford] office. I don’t think it is fair to be postcode fascists.’

Curious BBC staff, however, point out Salmon is a serious contender for the head of BBC Vision role, based in London, which would mean he might never need move.

His failure to buy a property has repeatedly been used as a suggestion he is not fully committed — a claim he strenuously denies.

He was accused of ‘leading from the back’ by Have I Got News For You producer Jimmy Mulville, while other staff felt that bosses enjoyed the best of both worlds while rank-and-file staff faced starker choices.

The executive has a home in leafy Twickenham, in which he lives with his actress wife Sarah Lancashire and their children.

[Teddy Bear]

The latest figures showing how the BBC justification for this venture would be a complete disaster for any private company, as well as the hypocrisy of those involved with it.

Judging from the perks given to those involved, it is just a way to milk more money out of the licence fee that gives absolutely NOTHING to those who pay it.

BBC spends £26,000 on taxis between London and Salford
The BBC spent almost £2m of licence fee payer's money last year on ferrying staff and guests between London and Manchester, including £26,000 on taxis.

Figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph under Freedom of Information show that the corporation spent more than £1.9million on rail, air and taxi travel between London and the corporation's new headquarters in Salford.
A total of 61 taxi bookings were made for the 200 mile journey, costing £420 each. The majority of the taxis were booked for guests on programmes based in Salford, such as BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sport.

A further 201 staff and guests opted to fly between London and Manchester, costing licence free payers £25,000.

The biggest bill, however, was for rail travel, with 26,265 journeys made between London and Manchester at a total cost of £1.9million. Spending on rail travel has almost doubled since 2011.

Angie Bray, a Conservative member of the culture select committee, said: "The move to Salford feels like an expensive box-ticking exercise.

"These figures demonstrate that the BBC is still struggling to establish Salford as an alternative to London. A very large number of people that they have on their programmes reside in London. It is very expensive."
Since they moved to Manchester, some of the BBC's programmes have struggled to attract guests.

When BBC Breakfast moved to its new base in Salford, it was forced to conduct 12 interviews via video link in one week because guests were based in London.

Mrs Bray suggested that the taxis may have been used to "lure" national figures to Salford. "There will always be this cost of having to pay them to come up," she said.

Many staff working in Salford have opted not to move there permanently.
A total of 174 staff have taken advantage of a halfway-house deal, officially called the "remote location allowance", under which they keep their main home in London and have some of their rent and expenses paid.

Each member of staff is given an allowance of up to £3,390 a month before tax, equivalent to £40,680 a year. To date, this has cost the corporation £3.3 million.

Susanna Reid and Bill Turnbull, the BBC breakfast presenters are among those who have taken advantage of the allowance.
Reid commutes 200 miles to Salford three days a week, travelling up the night before she is due to work and returning to her partner and three children in London the following day.

Peter Salmon, the director general of BBC North, is still yet to move permanently to Manchester.
Earlier this year he criticised "postcode fascists" who insist staff should buy properties in the North to show their commitment.

A spokesman for the BBC said that taxi journeys are permitted when there are "time constraints" or "exceptional" circumstances.
He said: “The BBC has offices across the UK and all over the world, so some element of travel is inevitable.

"The BBC's new base in Salford is home to some of the Corporation's major networks and services but we remain mindful of how we spend public money.
"Therefore we always encourage the cheapest method of travel and rail is the preferred method.”

There has also been a "culture clash" between journalists from the capital and their northern colleagues.
Last year BBC Breakfast staff who relocated to Salford complained that their concentration was being ruined by “thumping” music and their “boisterous” local colleagues.

Journalists who made the 200 mile move north say they have found themselves at loggerheads with local BBC broadcasters who resented the arrival of the “big guns” from the South.

The National Union of Journalists said that more than a dozen people have complained about noise levels.
They claim the noise has become so loud that it is ruining their concentration, risking their health and that background noise has even seeped on air during live broadcasts.

[Teddy Bear]

An ex Blue Peter presenter is extremely critical of the BBC move to Salford, and relates the points that we have covered but it's always good to have it confirmed from an insider.

Blue Peter veteran Valerie Singleton slams BBC's move to Salford

By Richard Kay

Whether the BBC’s closure of its iconic TV Centre in West London and its much criticised and hugely expensive move to Salford will be a long-term success or a failure is anyone’s guess.

But if the jury is still out, numerous presenters, including Sian Williams and the former Strictly Come Dancing star Chris Hollins, delivered their verdict by refusing to uproot themselves and their families for the North- West.

Now Valerie Singleton, one of the Corporation’s most venerated figures, has stepped into the debate with a withering assessment of the relocation and its vast cost. And Mark Thompson, the former Director-General who presided over the move, won’t like what she says one bit.

For Valerie, 75, who joined the BBC in 1961 as an announcer and went on to become a star of Blue Peter, tells me: ‘The money it must be costing is outrageous. I’m told it all goes back to Mark Thompson — well, I think he should be strung up!

‘And I heard that the Labour Government may have instigated the move to make it look as if the BBC wasn’t so centralised. But the stupid thing is that London is where everything happens.

‘I don’t understand the BBC. Who goes up to Salford? What star coming to London to advertise his movie opening in Leicester Square is going to slog all the way up to Salford to do an on-the-sofa? Of course they’re not!

'The cost is shocking. A friend goes up to Salford to do a programme and he gets his rail fare, he’s put up in a Travelodge and he gets his meals. And that’s just one presenter!’

The veteran broadcaster, who earlier this month joined a protest against a Tesco store development in Dorset, adds: ‘People don’t care where the programme is coming from.

'When I’m listening, I don’t mind whether it’s done in Outer Mongolia if it’s interesting — why do they have to keep telling me it’s from Salford?

‘As one of the guests on BBC 4’s coverage of the closure of TV Centre said the other night: “You wouldn’t think of pulling down the Albert Hall.” ’

[Teddy Bear]

Damian Thompson in the Telegraph expounds further on the pronouncements of Valerie Singleton above, and highlights the mindset of the BBC that is becoming more and more commonly recognised.

Valerie Singleton tells the truth about the BBC
By Damian Thompson

Is any public body in the Western world quite so grandly dismissive of its critics as the BBC? Next week a new director general, Lord Hall, takes office, but please don’t get your hopes up. The Today programme will continue to fill the airwaves with “independent” lobbyists who can turn even the blandest story about birdwatching or scone-baking into a moan about Government cuts. Newsnight will continue to employ an unreconstructed Old Left agitator, Paul Mason, as its economics editor. And the relocation to Salford – an ideological “internal migration” worthy of Beijing – will be further embedded.

This week Valerie Singleton was letting off steam about the Salford folie de grandeur. She described the costs of this mad experiment – railway tickets, hotel rooms and meals for presenters, let alone guests – as “shocking” and “outrageous”. No one at the Beeb should dismiss this as the grumbling of a former children’s TV star: Singleton was also a super-sharp presenter of The Money Programme and has a professional ear for the sound of cash being flushed down the drain.

But of course it will be dismissed, because – despite appearances – the BBC doesn’t really “do” self-examination (the Balen report into its anti-Israel bias has cost half a million quid to write and then suppress). From time to time an errant director general is marched, Aztec-style, to the top of the pyramid so licence fee payers can see his heart being torn out – but these human sacrifices change nothing.

The phrase that comes to mind is “invincible ignorance”: a refusal to engage in argument, rooted in rejection of hard evidence. It doesn’t matter how many examples of pro-EU bias you dump on the desk of a BBC executive, the response is a slow-blinking stare accompanied by guff about “impartiality” from Auntie’s penny catechism.

The Beeb wouldn’t like to be compared to the Catholic Church – but the parallels are compelling. Take the sex scandals. Jimmy Savile didn’t only betray the trust that was placed in him as a well-loved entertainer: he also betrayed the trust that parents placed in the BBC. There are shades here of parishioners letting their boys hang out with priests who, in addition to exuding a charisma typical of clerical abusers, represented an institution of unquestioned integrity.

Look at the way the BBC and the Catholic Church responded to sexual and financial allegations. We’re talking about an arrogance that goes beyond the fibs of politicians.

People didn’t expect the Beeb or the Church to lie, and this naivety created a black hole of unaccountability that still exists. Just as licence fee payers know little about the self-indulgence of BBC mandarins, so most Catholics have no idea how greedy and complacent the Roman and English hierarchies have become. (Significantly, there’s a plot by certain bishops to unseat the Pope’s new ambassador to Britain, Archbishop Mennini, who wants to blow the whistle on these corrupt ways.)

BBC bosses may be snootily anti-Catholic, but they’d fit right into the Roman curia. Four-hour feasts in the Borgo Pio, peasants kissing your hand – yup, they could live with that. Like Pope Francis, Tony Hall wants to dismantle the bureaucracy, but does he have the political will to override senior colleagues who just don’t see that there’s a problem? I’m sceptical. They don’t call it “invincible” ignorance for nothing.

My prediction: business as usual. Or, as Private Eye would put it, trebles all round – if only to dull the boredom of that pointless train journey to Salford.

[Teddy Bear]

For all the excuses and justifications the BBC has used to explain their move to Salford, this article shows how much of a waste of money it has truly been, without benefit to anybody but a Labour councillor.

Only 34 locals given jobs at BBC Salford exploding claim that move would create work for local people

• Just 1.5% of 2,300 workforce are from the city
  
• The BBC have managed to recruit just 10 extra people from Salford in the last year
  
• 11,400 people are currently out of work in the area

By James Tozer and Miles Goslett

Just 34 local people have been given jobs at the BBC's £200million new northern headquarters, it emerged yesterday.

Out of 2,300 people working at the corporation's MediaCity base in Salford, Greater Manchester, barely 1.5 per cent are from the city.

The figures - revealed following a Freedom of Information application - explode the BBC's claim that moving departments including sport and children's programmes to the North West would create new jobs there.

Instead, critics say millions of pounds of licence fee cash has been wasted in the name of 'geographical correctness'.

Two years since staff began working at the complex, the vast majority have either moved up from London or from regional offices in or around Manchester.

The overall increase in local employment in the last 15 months is just ten people.

In January last year the Daily Mail revealed just 24 people from Salford had been given jobs there - a figure branded 'shocking' by local MP Hazel Blears, who called on the BBC to 'up its game'.

The local people employed there include nine Salford teenagers were taken on to perform six-month 'ambassador' roles, meeting and greeting visitors, when the corporation moved to MediaCity in 2011.

The new figures show that just two have secured permanent jobs with the BBC, although some still work there part-time.

A further 32 people from Salford work at the complex, in roles described as 'business support', 'content-making and journalism' and 'new media and technology'.

Their salaries range from £16,547 to £50,500.

The figures exclude workers such as cleaners and construction staff employed by contractors.

According to the latest figures, 11,400 people are currently out of work in Salford.

Stephen Kingston, editor of the campaigning Salford Star newspaper, said MediaCity was becoming a 'bubble', divorced from the area that housed it.

'The majority of locals with jobs there are cleaners and security staff,' he said.

'There doesn't seem to be any accountability. At the end of the day MediaCity is owned by a private company and it doesn't care about the people of Salford.' BBC departments moved to Salford include sport, children's programmes, Breakfast television and Radio 5 Live.

However presenters Sian Williams and Chris Hollins both refused to make the change and were replaced.

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson blasted Salford as 'a small suburb with a Starbucks and a canal with ducks on it'.

In addition to the BBC, the privately-owned MediaCity complex in Salford Quays also houses several ITV departments, with a new Coronation Street set under construction nearby.

The BBC pointed out that in total 221 MediaCity workers lived in Salford, although they weren't from the city originally.

A spokeswoman said: 'Our Salford-based workforce has continued to grow and we have seen the first of our local apprentices and young ambassadors progress from their training schemes into permanent jobs.

'Ten per cent of our workers live in the borough and we continue to work in schools and colleges to support the long-term development of skills and experience.'

[Teddy Bear]

The justification by the BBC for the move to Salford is:

The BBC made a commitment in 2004 to move much of its activities outside London to serve audiences better and deliver increased public value.

Now just what difference it makes to ANY audience, in the UK or anywhere in the world, just where those broadcasts are made seems immaterial. They could be in Timbuktu as far as that goes. Seeing that London is the capital, where most outsiders that would be likely to be invited to appear on the BBC would be based, then it would make the most sense to maintain their base there.

As far as increased public value goes, it's been seen already that this couldn't be the case. The following article shows just how careless the BBC in regard to monitoring payments made to staff in relation to this move. No private company could stay in business with this attitude, so the excuse that the BBC has public value at heart is completely ludicrous.

BBC slammed for 'inadequate' checks on paying £23million to persuade staff to move to Salford

• National Audit Office criticises 'exceptional' payments to more than 90 staff
  
• Sport, children's TV and BBC Breakfast among programmes moved north
  
• One person offered alllowance to sell a second home, NAO found
  
• Still not clear if £233million move will give value for money

By Matt Chorley

The BBC was slammed by the spending watchdog today for paying £24million in over-generous allowances to persuade staff to move from London to Salford.

The National Audit Office criticised the decision to give more than 90 out of 850 employees ‘exceptional’ payouts to compensate them for moving to the north of England. One person was given £150,000, but gave £65,000 back.

It claimed the BBC had ‘inadequate’ controls on the use of public money, used to pay for moving costs of staff whose jobs were transferred to the new Media City in Greater Manchester. Today the BBC Trust agreed the failings were ‘unacceptable’.

While the move was likely to come in under the £233 million budget, it was too early to say if it would give long-term value for money to licence fee payers.

BBC Sport, BBC Radio 5Live, children’s programmes and BBC Breakfast were among the departments moved to Salford.

By December there were 2,300 BBC staff working in there, including 854 who relocated from outside the Greater Manchester area.

The NAO report said the BBC made 91 exceptions to the relocation policy, often to take into account personal circumstances such as disabilities and caring responsibilities, although some of these had not been documented.

The BBC paid 11 staff more than £100,000 each to move, although the average payment was around £5,000.

In one case, which was verbally approved, according to the report, a member of staff received an allowance for selling a second home in the east of England while retaining a London home.

Although the corporation was committed to fully documenting authorisations, the NAO found 44 staff received more than the monthly maximum £1,900 remote location allowance, but only six were recorded as exceptions.

The report also said the BBC ‘did not apply a consistent approach to checking that relocating staff had actually incurred the costs that they were claiming’.

Reacting to today's report the BBC Trust said it accepted a relocation allowance policy was ‘justified’ to encourage staff to move, maintain continuity for audiences and minimise redundancy costs.

But the trust added: ‘Any exceptions should have been rare, clearly justified and supported by well-documented business cases. It is unacceptable, therefore, that the NAO found BBC management did not adequately document the reasons for all exceptions to the standard policy.’

The NAO also said the BBC could not show that some of its allowances were set at a suitable level and when it was considering offering them to staff, the corporation should test value for money using ‘appropriate benchmarks’.

It suggested the BBC should also set up a robust system with clear records so it can demonstrate that allowances ‘are appropriate in all cases’.

The NAO said: ‘The BBC's documentation of exceptions to its standard relocation policy was not sufficiently clear. This creates financial and reputational risks. The BBC will need to address this in future moves, which include relocating a further 1,000 posts to Salford.’

The BBC made a commitment in 2004 to move much of its activities outside London to serve audiences better and deliver increased public value. The biggest part of this has been to move staff to MediaCity at Salford Quays.

The NAO report concluded the move was ‘successfully completed’ with clear delivery plans, and the BBC exceeded its target of moving 30 per cent of the staff whose roles were transferring north, with a final figure of 38%.

BBC forecasts suggest the relocation allowances will come to £24 million using a variety of financial incentives. These included the remote location allowance which covered the cost of renting property in Salford and travelling to London at weekends for two years for those who could not make a permanent move.

The report also concluded it was too early to judge the long-term impact of the move, which is projected to come in at £9 million under budget.

The NAO said: ‘There have been some early impacts, such as an increase in the gross value added by the BBC's spend in the region. However, in our view, it is too early to assess the full impact of the move as it will take at least two to three years for it to take effect.’

[Teddy Bear]

Just bear in mind when you read this article from today's Mail, that the BBC claim is this move is to give better public value.

Still the BBC's black hole of Salford swallows your cash: £15,000 on Gary Lineker's taxis. Star presenters commuting by jet. And now even the boss behind that £1bn move north won't leave London

• The wastefulness at the Beeb's shiny new headquarters is mind-blowing
  
• Many high-profile staff still will not move more than a year after it opened
  
• Among them is the 42-year-old BBC Breakfast presenter Susanna Reid
  
• Victoria Derbyshire presented her show from Salford twice in two weeks
  
• BBC North supremo Peter Salmon received a £28,500 relocation package
  
• National Audit Office slams BBC for its £24m 'over-generous' allowances

By Paul Scott

The webcams in the BBC Radio 5 Live studios at the station's shiny new £1 billion headquarters in Salford do not provide the Beeb's most scintillating offering.

Indeed, the visual feed from the controversial and vastly expensive northern complex is more interesting for what it doesn't show, than what it does.

Anyone wishing to watch one of 5 Live's most high-profile presenters, Victoria Derbyshire, host her mid-morning phone-in show is likely to be disappointed.

Many are the days when the webcam would show nothing but an empty studio while the disembodied voice of the presenter mysteriously fills the ether.

Rather suspiciously, you might think, on Tuesday she yet again presented her show from London, just hours after posting pictures on Twitter of herself glammed-up at the Sony Radio Awards, held the previous evening at the swanky Grosvenor House Hotel in the capital.

It seems that she, like many of her highly paid BBC colleagues, shuns the Corporation's much-hyped MediaCity HQ, dubbed the Canary Wharf of the North.

In a two-week period earlier this year, 44-year-old Miss Derbyshire, whose image dominates the walls of the entrance to the impressive building, presented her daily show from Salford only twice.

During the three months after her show was first transferred from London to Salford, she spent only two weeks broadcasting from the North-West.

Officially, the Beeb excuses her absences for 'editorial and childcare' reasons.

But according to colleagues, even when she does make an appearance at the studios near Manchester, Miss Derbyshire — who lives with BBC executive Mark Sandell and two sons in the South-East — invariably flies from Heathrow at her own expense, does her show and returns in time to pick up her children from school.

She isn't the only famous name who refuses to give up London for the north. Among others, Breakfast TV presenter Susanna Reid and Radio 5 Live host Richard Bacon continue to commute to and from London.

Just over a year after the state-of-the-art building in Salford Quays was opened by the Queen, it has already become a billion-pound white elephant and monument to the licence-fee-funded broadcaster's shameful profligacy.

At the same time, hard-pressed residents are furious over claims by BBC bosses — including former director-general Mark Thompson, who conceived the ludicrous scheme — that the venture would create 15,000 new jobs for local people. In fact, unemployment in the area has risen.

Scandalously, it was revealed last month that only 34 of the 2,300 people working there have been recruited from the Salford area.

Now comes news that the BBC has been slammed by the National Audit Office for paying out £24 million in over-generous allowances to make the 200-mile trek north more palatable to staff.

It criticises the decision to give more than 90 employees 'exceptional' payouts to compensate them. Eleven staff received more than £100,000 each, one getting £150,000.

According to the NAO report, one member of staff received an allowance for selling a second home in the east of England while retaining a London home. It also claims the BBC had 'inadequate' controls on the use of public money. The BBC Trust agrees the failings are 'unacceptable'.

What a complete farce, and all to placate those inside the Corporation who consider it to be too London-centric, and to appease the former Labour government which pushed for the taxpayer-financed folly in one of its heartland areas.

No wonder former Blue Peter presenter Valerie Singleton recently joined the chorus of disapproval — adding her voice to those of such venerable BBC figures as Terry Wogan and John Simpson — and branded the Salford complex a waste of public money.

It would be unfair to single out Victoria Derbyshire for her apparent aversion to Salford, considering that even her boss, BBC North supremo Peter Salmon, has steadfastly refused to up sticks from London.

Instead, according to the BBC's website, Mr Salmon, who is married to former Coronation Street actress Sarah Lancashire and enjoys a salary of £375,000, receives £2,375-a-month to cover his supposedly 'temporary relocation allowance'.

In other words, he stays in Manchester at our expense during the week and goes home to leafy Twickenham, South-West London, at the weekends.

In the last financial year alone, Salmon, who has held his post since 2008, received just under £28,500 as part of his relocation package, on top of his wages.

You may think that having run the BBC's operation in the north for five years, he might have been able to find a suitable permanent home close to work by now.

How typical of the bloated Beeb that while the rest of the country faces austerity, the gravy train rolls on unhindered.

The wastefulness is mind-blowing. A recent Freedom of Information request revealed the Corporation spent £30,000 a week on travel costs after the relocation of Radio 5 Live, BBC Sport, Breakfast TV, plus the Children's and Learning departments, to the MediaCity complex, which is also home to other northern-based broadcasters such as Granada TV.

Additionally, £15,000 a year goes on taxis just to ferry Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker between Salford and his home in Surrey.

One unnamed BBC executive charged £785 for a single rail trip to the capital, and another made three return trips from London to the new northern HQ in a week, racking up fares of £584.

The grotesque waste of money was starkly illustrated by one London-based regular 5 Live freelance contributor who told me he used to take a short Tube ride to the station's old base in White City, West London.

Now, however, the BBC buys him a round-trip train ticket, which can cost up to £308, to Manchester's Piccadilly station. At the other end, a car takes him to Salford, ten minutes away.

Then, after his brief 45-minute stint on air, the same car — which waits outside — ferries him back to the station for the two-hour train trip home. This whole charade takes more than six hours.

'I could easily go to Broadcasting House in Central London and speak to the studio in Salford from a booth there, and the audience would be none the wiser,' he told me.

'But the producers think it is more 'real' if I am physically sitting next to the show host. It is utterly bonkers, but completely typical of the BBC.'

No surprise, then, that in the last financial year, the number of journeys undertaken by BBC staff doubled to more than 26,000.

Nor is there just the monetary cost to be considered. At any one time, scores of highly paid BBC executives and staff are on trains, in taxis or on planes for hours on end, rather than getting on with their jobs.

However, even the exorbitant travel costs pale into insignificance when weighed against the truly astronomical bill the licence-fee-payer has been picking up for relocating nearly 2,300 BBC staff who used to work in London.

Of them, 850 have been given £11 million in so-called 'assisted location packages' to cover estate agent fees, stamp duty, furnishings and rent. In many cases, receipts of expenditure were not even required.

Others, like Peter Salmon, have taken advantage of the so-called 'temporary relocation allowance', under which they keep their main house in London and then have their rent paid by the broadcaster for their weekday 'crash pads' in Manchester.

Under the generous scheme, each member of staff is given an allowance of up to £3,390 a month before tax, equivalent to £40,680 a year, for up to two years.

Meanwhile, the Corporation is also offering to arrange the sale of houses on behalf of staff in the south, guaranteeing them the equivalent of 85 per cent of the market value if they cannot find a buyer.

The Beeb also plans to relocate a further 1,000 staff from London in the next decade, ramping up costs even more (starting with BBC 3 later this year).

Many high-profile staff still will not move. Among them is 42-year-old BBC Breakfast presenter Susanna Reid, who has refused to uproot her partner and their three sons from London.

Miss Reid, who appears on air three days a week, takes the train from London in the evening and arrives in the north just in time to go to bed at a Manchester hotel.

She then goes to work the next day and returns home to her family in the afternoon — before beginning the whole commute again.

Given such a gruelling schedule, it is little wonder that in 2011 former Breakfast TV presenters Sian Williams and Chris Hollins decided to take up other roles rather than make the trip north.

They are not alone. Farcically, the two senior executives charged with overseeing the move made it clear that they preferred to stay in London.

In 2010, Paul Gaskin, the £190,000 human resources director, who was hired to persuade BBC staff to take positions in Salford, left after only two months because he did not want to move to Manchester.

A year later, Richard Deverell, the chief operating officer in Salford, moved to another job within the Corporation that kept him in the capital before quitting last summer for a job at London-based regulator Ofcom.

And it was revealed that Guy Bradshaw, the consultant brought in to manage the day-to-day relocation of staff, actually lived 4,000 miles away in Kentucky with his American wife.

More than half the London staff offered transfers to Salford have refused, despite bosses enticing them with all-expenses-paid jollies to the area, including coach tours of local beauty spots and lavish dinners at the swish Malmaison hotel in Manchester.

Meanwhile, the very people the move was supposed to benefit — the residents of the predominantly rundown Salford — have gained little. No wonder community leaders are unhappy.
Stephen Kingston, the editor of the award-winning local online newspaper the Salford Star, told me:

'We predicted that the only jobs for Salford people would be as cleaners, security and receptionists and that's exactly what has happened.

'The truth is that unemployment has gone up here, so where are all the jobs we were promised?

BBC STAFF COMPLAIN ABOUT BEING BANNED FROM USING MICROWAVES

BBC staff have complained about not being allowed to use microwaves at their new headquarters because bosses fear fire alarms could interfere with live broadcasts.

Corporation workers also suggested they have been prevented from setting up tea and coffee 'hubs', where they could use kettles and toasters, at New Broadcasting House in central London.

They suggested that as well as microwaves being banned they have been prevented from using kettles and toasters in the studios, located in the capital’s West End.

They complained at being forced to traipse to the 'News Café' in the basement where they face large queues to heat up meals or drink 'bad tea or coffee from machines'.

The public broadcaster confirmed microwaves were placed in specific areas because of management concerns that 'live programmes' could be forced off air.

'There’s a risk that they set off fire alarms if something burns in the microwave and creates smoke,' one BBC source told The Daily Telegraph.

The BBC, however, denied that staff were prevented from having tea and coffee hubs.

In February, The One Show was interrupted after a fire alarm was triggered by a microwave at the old White City headquarters.

A BBC Workplace spokesman said: 'There are no microwaves in kitchen areas in New Broadcasting House as there have been several incidents in recent years when microwaves have taken live programmes off-air in other buildings.

'The number of microwaves in the News Café has recently been increased to meet demand and these are available 24/7.'

'MediaCity is a big bubble that local people don't have access to. Given the amount of public money that has gone into it, you would expect Salford people to get more out of it.

'Instead, people here say the heart is being ripped out of Salford just for the BBC. It's nothing less than social cleansing.'

Cash is rolling in, however, for landlords of the swanky apartments in the exclusive Salford Quays enclave. While, house prices are tumbling in nearby districts, the prices of smart local properties popular with BBC staff are growing faster than anywhere outside London.

Greg Davies, of Reeds Rains estate agents in Salford Quays, says: 'Rents have gone up by 10 to 15 per cent in the past two years. Buy-to-let owners here are quids in.'

Much of that rental money, it goes without saying, is being paid by licence-fee-payers in generous allowances for BBC staff.

And it's not as if Beeb workers actually seem to like their new headquarters. Those I spoke to this week at the soulless, black and neon-painted offices, are gloomy.

They are instructed to brainstorm in brightly coloured 'collaborative pods' and, it is reported, are discouraged from having their own litter bins to stop them becoming 'territorial'.

The poor morale is not helped by the fear of crime from gangs on the nearby rundown Ordsall estate.

One male BBC employee was shot at with an air rifle as he cycled home and another was persuaded to hand over the keys to his Hertz hire car to someone posing as an employee of the company.

Such is the fear of attacks that security staff now offer to escort staff at MediaCity to their cars and local tram stations.

Robert Oxley, Campaign Manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, says: 'While staff have been forced to vacate their homes in the south-east, the Corporation has allowed an exorbitant bill for temporary accommodation to be racked up.

'It is also shocking how much licence-fee-payers' cash is being spent on hotels, trains and taxis merely to enable London-based guests to sit on a sofa in Salford when it would be far cheaper to talk to them from a studio in the capital.'

But a BBC spokesman insisted: 'Our Salford-based workforce has continued to grow and we have seen the first of our local apprentices and young ambassadors progress from their training schemes into permanent jobs.

'Ten per cent of our workers live in the borough, and we continue to work in schools and colleges to support the long-term development of skills and experience.'

Which sounds distinctly like platitudes — and, of course, of that ten per cent, a significant proportion are likely to be those who have relocated from London, not genuine local residents.

In the meantime, we can expect to carry on footing the enormous bill for the BBC's billion-pound Salford money pit.

[Teddy Bear]

There's a few aspects to the following article that are not covered, and worthy of mention.

The 'Public Accounts Committee' has condemned the BBC for paying its staff a total of £24 million to move to Salford, while not keeping a full record of just who it was that authorised these payments.

Seems like a no-brainer that whoever heads the departments responsible should have their heads on the block, and that's just for starters.

Another criticism was that that despite the huge expense of moving to Salford, the BBC does not own its new office space or studios. Instead, it rents them from real estate giant the Peel Group.

The PAC raised concerns about the 10-year arrangement, saying the BBC could risk locking itself into making payments for buildings it may not use.

It also warned the corporation risked damaging its reputation by associating itself with the company, which was accused of avoiding corporation tax earlier this year. The Peel Group has always denied the allegations.

Besides the obvious, there's something I read in the article that rang an alarm bell. It was when I read this:

Last night, the PAC’s chairman Margaret Hodge praised the BBC for moving to Salford on time, but condemned its financial management saying: ‘The scale of some of the allowances paid to staff to relocate to Salford is difficult to justify.

In light of the excesses and bad judgements displayed, praising them for anything related to it seems odd. So I looked up just who this Margaret Hodge is, and wouldn't you know it, she's a Labour MP.

So besides the fact that she's going to do her best to protect 'auntie', there's a few other things about her own record.

Hodge's role as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee (United Kingdom) has not been without controversy.

There have been concerns raised in the national Press over the fact that as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Hodge is leading an investigation into the controversial tax arrangements of a number of US companies operating in the UK when her own family company 'pays just 0.01pc tax on £2.1bn of business generated in the UK'.[38] However, the same newspaper subsequently apologised to her, stating that "there is no inconsistency or hypocrisy in Ms Hodge criticising other companies for tax avoidance and [we] apologise to her for any contrary impression".[39] In a May 2013 interview with Sky News Hodge stated that her family company paid 'every penny' of the tax it owed although later she admitted that she did not know how much tax it actually paid.[40] She has also been accused of lacking understanding of how the taxation system operates, both the existing statute and the process involved for amending it.[41] Hodge continued to demonstrate her lack of understanding of UK tax law by demanding HMRC launch an "absolutely thorough investigation to make sure that UK taxpayers receive the maximum to which they are entitled" when the Vodafone sale of Verizon Wireless was announced in September 2013.[42][43] This was despite the fact that no UK companies were involved in the transaction, and even if there had been then no UK corporation tax would have been payable due to the 'substantial shareholdings exemption'. This was a deliberately designed exemption that Hodge herself voted in favour of in the Finance Act 2002, introduced by the Labour government of the time.[44]

So hardly somebody that can be said to be impartial in relation to the Peel Group and their tax affairs.

As to her own previous record, there's also this scandal that indicates just what this woman is about.

Child abuse controversy

In 1985, Demetrious Panton complained about abuse that he had suffered while in the council's care in the 1970s and 1980s. He did not receive an official reply until 1989, in which the council denied responsibility.[12]

In 1990, Liz Davies, a senior social worker employed by the borough and her manager, David Cofie, raised concerns about sexual abuse of children in Islington Council care. Correspondence between Hodge and the director of social work indicates that she declined a request for extra resources to investigate. In early 1992, Davies (not to be confused with the barrister and former Islington councillor) resigned from her post and requested that Scotland Yard investigate the allegations. The Evening Standard then began reporting on the allegations of abuse in Islington's children's homes, shortly after which Hodge resigned to pursue a career with Price Waterhouse. In 1995, the "White Report" into sexual abuse in Islington Care Homes reported that the council had failed adequately to investigate the allegations.[13]

In 2003, following Hodge's appointment as Minister for Children, Panton went public with his allegation that he was abused in Islington Council care and had repeatedly raised this issue with no effect. He accused Hodge of being ultimately responsible for the abuse that he suffered. Davies also went public with the issues that she had raised concerns about while working for the council.[14] Following a media campaign conducted by several national newspapers calling for her to resign from her new post, she responded to Panton by letter, in which she apologised for referring to him as 'an extremely disturbed person' in an earlier letter to then BBC chairman Gavyn Davies which was broadcast on Radio 4's Today programme. Hodge was forced to publicly apologise and offered to contribute to a charity of Panton's choosing as recompense.[15]

One can guarantee that the BBC will not be judged adequately by any body that this woman heads. We'll now see just how she manages to 'excuse them their sins' ('lessons have been learned, etc, etc,)

BBC's £24m relocation cost 'difficult to justify': MPs condemn corporation for failing to keep records of who authorised payments to staff

• The corporation has paid its staff a total of £24m to move to its new base in Salford, Greater Manchester
  
• It has been condemned for not keeping a full record of who authorised sums
  
• MPs say many of the allowances were 'excessive' and 'difficult to justify'

By Alasdair Glennie

The BBC has been condemned for paying its staff up to £150,000 each to move to its new base in Salford without keeping a full record of who authorised the sums.

In a report published today, the public accounts committee of MPs said many of the allowances, which totalled £24million, were ‘excessive’ and ‘difficult to justify’ to licence fee payers.

In total, the corporation has spent £942million setting up a new northern base to help redress a perceived ‘imbalance’ in its coverage, but has had to offer 900 staff an average of £28,000 each to persuade them to move.

Last night, the PAC’s chairman Margaret Hodge praised the BBC for moving to Salford on time, but condemned its financial management saying: ‘The scale of some of the allowances paid to staff to relocate to Salford is difficult to justify.

‘There were 11 cases where the cost of relocating staff exceeded £100,000 per person, with one costing £150,000.

'And it is not acceptable that the BBC also failed to make a proper record of the exceptions it made to its allowance policy.’

The PAC report said the BBC Trust acknowledged that ‘some of the individual relocation packages involved ‘huge’ amounts of money that would aggravate licence fee payers’.

It found around ten per cent of staff were granted more than they were entitled to under the BBC’s standard allowance, but failed to keep a full record of why these exceptions were granted.

Miss Hodge said the failure to keep proper records was ‘not acceptable’.

The report follows a damning study by the National Audit Office published in May, which found the BBC’s financial oversight was ‘inadequate’.

Relocation perks offered to BBC staff included a guaranteed minimum price on their old home if they sold it and moved north.

They could also claim a two-year ‘remote location allowance’ worth £1,900 a month to cover the cost of travel and renting a property in Salford if they were unwilling to commit to move north.

Among those taking advantage of the generous offer is BBC Breakfast presenter Susannah Reid, who makes the 200-mile commute three times a week at licence fee payers’ expense.

Other staff were offered a one off payment of £5,000 to help them move, while homeowners could claim £3,000 towards household goods.

Despite the huge expense of moving to Salford, the BBC does not own its new office space or studios. Instead, it rents them from real estate giant the Peel Group.

The PAC raised concerns about the 10-year arrangement, saying the BBC could risk locking itself into making payments for buildings it may not use.

It also warned the corporation risked damaging its reputation by associating itself with the company, which was accused of avoiding corporation tax earlier this year. The Peel Group has always denied the allegations.

The PAC said: ‘The BBC needs to demonstrate to the BBC Trust that it has assessed the potential risks of the Peel Group having a dominant position at its Salford site and taken appropriate steps to address them.

‘It should also make clear its expectation that, as an organisation funded by the licence fee, it expects companies with which it contracts to pay their fair share of tax.’

It added: added: ‘The BBC’s relationships with the Peel Group and other partner organisations involve potential reputational risks, for example, regarding the extent to which partner organisations are transparent about their tax status in the UK and the amount of tax they pay.’

Miss Hodge said her committee would report later in the year on another case of BBC financial mismanagement, the Digital Media Initiative. The disastrous project was scrapped earlier this year at a cost of £100million.

She said: ‘We are dismayed at the abandonment of the BBC’s Digital Media Initiative at a cost to the licence fee payer of £100 million.

'There have been conflicting reports from the BBC and the BBC Trust on what the project did or did not deliver. We will return to this matter later in the year, once the facts have been established.’

[steevo]

In light of the excesses and bad judgements displayed, praising them for anything related to it seems odd. So I looked up just who this Margaret Hodge is, and wouldn't you know it, she's a Labour MP.

I just wanna say that's exactly what I would've noted. You're making a value judgment that goes beyond law. It should be expected they do it right and considering the depth of deliberate abuse, praise should be the last thing when holding them to account.

If there's anyone responsible for her Chairmanship, they should be held to account and she dismissed.

[Teddy Bear]

I agree!
What I find also odd is that I only know about these dubious elements of her career because I looked it up.
What of those who know her personally, and the history she carries with her, like her fellow politicians on all sides, and such like. How come nobody has raised any objections to her appointment to this position?

Given the failures she displayed in the child abuse scandal i mentioned above, how come she is still in office?

Maybe her father's money has something to do with it.

[steevo]

I suspect it's similar to situations here where it involves the Left, there are numerous reasons why not only Labour but Torie representatives would prefer to let it go. But use your imagination while reversing ideology and Labour would have been all over the partisan hack as well as consciousness Tories.

[Teddy Bear]

You can also imagine if it was the Daily Mail that she was investigating, that the BBC would have been first to bring up her dubious history, and show just how impaired her judgement would be.

[Teddy Bear]

We have detailed in several threads the numerous instances of wasted licence fee money on the BBC move to Salford, including this one.

Now the BBC are justifying opening another center in Birmingham.
Let's see first just what their claims are:

BBC's Lord Hall: Birmingham is the 'place to be'
The BBC outlines plans for a further move out of London, as Lord Hall announces a new digital hub in Birmingham

By Hannah Furness
The BBC has outlined plans for a further move out of London, as director-general Lord Hall announces a new digital hub in Birmingham.
Lord Hall has released plans for “a new creative vision” for the Midlands, including the creation of more than 80 jobs in Birmingham and a new “arts partnership”.

Speaking at the Mailbox, the BBC’s base in the Midlands, he said the area would now head up “digital innovation”, with apprentice schemes, community outreach teams and “talent and skills development” to be based there.

The decision follows the controversial move to Salford, with 894 staff reported to have been paid relocation allowances worth a total of £16million by May this year.

Lord Hall has now announced The Space, a digital partnership with the Arts Council, will be now based in Birmingham, and will be responsible for the BBC’s Shakespeare season in 2016.

He told staff: “I want to make Birmingham a really exciting and important part of what we do.

“This is just the start - but make no mistake, if you’re interested in new skills and digital innovation, this is the place to be.”

The new measures are expected to create 81 jobs in Birmingham, with 69 roles moving from London and seven from Salford.

The Birmingham site is currently responsible for recording dramas including Doctors, WPC 56, and Father Brown, as well as long-running Radio 4 soap The Archers.

The BBC Asian Network and local news is also filmed there, with recent events based there including BBC One’s By Any Means, The Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of The Year and BBC Two’s Peaky Blinders.
The BBC has promised an additional £23.5 million “activity” in the region over the next three years as a result of the move.

Peter Salmon, director of BBC North, said “This is the first phase of our plans for the BBC in Birmingham. We’re building a stronger BBC in the city and today’s announcements are the first steps in that journey.
“We will continue to work with Birmingham; the wider region and the wider BBC to increase our activity here. “

Let's just remind ourselves just what the BBC claimed would happen as a result of their move to Salford, and what the reality actually was as of April this year:

Mark Thompson, who was director general at the time the move started, had stated that "BBC North is going to be an anchor around which to build a critical mass of jobs in the North West".

Peter Salmon, director of BBC North, told council leaders last month that a main aim of the new base was to engage and work with the local community.

The BBC's move to MediaCityUK cost an estimated £900 million to complete, including money used to relocate staff to the area. However, since the opening of MediaCity in May 2011 to March 2012, just 39 people with Salford addresses were recruited - 32 of whom were still on the payroll last month.

A Freedom of Information request discovered that the BBC had received 3,172 applications by January 2012 from people living in Salford, which currently has 11,400 people out of work.

Now Hall babbles about his 'creative vision', digital innovation, community outreach teams, blah blah blah. Clearly he's 'forgotten' about the recent failed 'digital initiative' which cost licence fee payers well over £100 Million, but hey, easy come; easy go.

Again we have Salmon telling us how wonderful it will be for the community there, I wonder how the community of Salford feel enriched because of the BBC there.

Clearly these moves have nothing to do with the BBC remit or purpose, simply their own self serving hegemony and arrogance to dominate the landscape everywhere.

End the licence fee, let them go private and fund their own 'visions'. We'll see just how long they last.

[Teddy Bear]

At the beginning of this thread the BBC were reported to have claimed that the reason for the move to Salford was to make the corporation less 'London-centric', less 'southern', and more 'devolved', 'diverse', and 'democratic'.

So you'd think that those moving there would take time to understand the locals, especially before making statements that might be insulting to them.
But then we are talking about the BBC.

'Go back to London!' BBC presenter Evan Davis slammed for being 'London-centric' after saying Salford should change its name to Manchester

• Today man said change would boost the North West's international profile
• It would forge a 'mega-city' stretching from Merseyside to Leeds, he added
• But locals are disdainful of the suggestion, calling it 'London-centric'

By Damien Gayle

Northerners have pilloried Evan Davis after the broadcaster suggested that the BBC should say it's based in Manchester, not Salford.

Today programme presenter Davis, 51, said the change would boost the North West's international reputation and help forge a 'mega-city' stretching from Merseyside to Leeds.

He said it was a 'serious problem' that parts of Greater Manchester such as Salford, home to the BBC's MediaCity UK since 2011, refused to simply be called 'Manchester'.

But Northerners have reacted to his comments with disdain, with Salford's mayor calling the presenter 'London-centric' and another local suggesting that he 'go back to London'.

Davis made his proposal in an interview with the Manchester Evening News ahead of the broadcast of the second episode of his BBC2 programme Mind The Gap, which looks London's dominance among UK cities.

'It’s a serious problem for Manchester that other people refuse to be called Manchester. It’s doing it no favours. It [Salford] should be called Manchester,' he said.

He pointed out that the two cities, despite their difference in names, share the 0161 telephone area code, the M post code, and the same inter-city rail connections.

The move would help both cities to boost their 'international image' and help them to compete with European cities like Lyon, France, and Madrid, Spain, he said.

But Ian Stewart, the mayor of Salford, dismissed the suggestion. 'People clearly won’t know about Salford if we remove all mention of it from the map,' he said.

'This view is typical of a London-centric view of the world. Fortunately the British isles is more diverse than London and a handful of big cities. Our strength in the north lies is our diversity, not in all being the same.'

Salford resident Lynne Monroe echoed her mayor's sentiment.

'Salford is Salford,' she told the Daily Telegraph. 'We were here before Manchester and we are proud of where we come from.

'If [Davies] doesn't like it, let him go back to London.'