The BBC seems to have gotten itself into some hot water lately. Their first class and business class travel expenses have soared by 60% during the recent financial year, even though they have quite publically pledged to cut their expenses.
Daily Spending
The information shown from the Freedom of Information Act shows that they are spending at least £2.3million each day on travel that is not in economy class both inside Britain and overseas.
Part of this increase is certainly due to the BBC’s decision to move 50% of its programming outside of London by the year 2016. Many of their executives and staff have been going back and forth between London and Manchester as they attend meetings and work on the new Media City site that will be in Salford.
Ironic Pledge to Reduce Costs
Ironically, while they have pledged to reduce costs by spending 50% of their programming budget outside of London, they are now spending a great deal on hotels, travel, taxi bills and more for staff, presenters and studio guests to make their way around the country.
For instance, the sport department will be moving to Salford, but the BBC is going to have to spend £5million to get its staff to London for the Olympic Games in the coming year.
In response to the criticism, a BBC spokesman said, “The BBC adheres to a strict expenses policy, and with specific exceptions such as long distance travel where staff are working immediately on arrival, all travel is economy class.”