When Are The Bbc Goign To Realize It Is Not Their Money?

[youngmafbog]

http://news.sky.com/story/1155105/bbc-criticised-for-24m-staff-relocation-costs

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

I'm sure many hard pressed license payers will be pleased to here this.

The BBC seem to live in a different world (A right-on liberal do as I say not as I do one).

[LazyGun]

I do agree with you on at least one issue with respect to the BBC; That they have become very complacent and very comfortable with very generous remuneration packages for their senior staff; And what appears to be an explosion of overlapping middle management roles.

Were any of the private companies I have worked for have decided to relocate for business reasons, I am sure they would be wanting to keep key staff, but ultimately the size of the relocation package would almost certainly have been far less generous.

It is difficult not to escape the conclusion that the size of the remuneration packages for these senior executives in particular were in part a bribe to move from the bright lights of London to the murky gloom of "oop north" :)

[AB Editor]

"It is difficult not to escape the conclusion that the size of the remuneration packages for these senior executives in particular were in part a bribe to move from the bright lights of London to the murky gloom of "oop north" :)"

Yep! I quite like Manchester, but it does seem that way.

In fairness, £150,000 is about the price of a train ticket one way these days.

[emmie]

not their money so why would they worry, pretty much like our local authority, who are paying 4 consultants half a million quid a year, no one knows because the council refuse to disclose the reason why they have been taken on. reported in the letters page of our local paper, the person had requested the info on the basis of freedom of information and the council has so far refused to disclose the reason they get tax payers money..

[emmie]

Ab Editor as to the on board catering, if there is any, is going to add another few grand, extortion by any other name

[VHG]

I am going to defend the BBC a bit here.

Any employee asked to move from London to Manchester is going to be very reluctant, unless it is made worthwhile. If you give them no financial support they will all just say no.

It is only reasonable the BBC should pay ALL the cost of the move.

This includes paying for people to VISIT Manchester a few times before the move (and stay in hotels) to look at areas and find a house.

Plus also the costs of moving should be paid for - estate agent fees, solicitor fees, removal costs, stamp duty, costs of getting new mortgages, and a "lump sum" to pay towards "carpets and curtains" in the new house.

Unless the BBC pay for this nobody is going to move.

I used to work for an large IT company, and once got a company move, and this is the sort of thing the company paid for (though this was 30 years ago so the figure was lower then).

Maybe £100,000 and £150,000 sounds high, but if these are top executives with million pound houses in London (not unreasonable) then a move could easily cost that when all moving costs are taken into account.

If a person has their own boat or plane for example then the BBC may well have to pay for this to be moved in the cost of the move.

[Ellipsis]

Maybe the executives took a pay cut, as they are now living in a part of the country where the cost of living is lower ...

[Svejk]

Champagne Socialists feathering their nests at other's expense? Surely not.;)

[emmie]

many didn't want to go, not just because its in Salford, the fact is if you have children why would you want to uproot them from their homes, schools, friends, just because of your job, what about the partner, husband or wife who's work is down south, doesn't make sense. another way to spend taxpayers money, did you see how much it cost to build, as well as the annexe to the BBC in London, a small fortune...

[emmie]

i doubt that Manchester is much cheaper than the capital,

[emmie]

if they own a boat or a plane they are being paid too much.

[dave50]

It was a stupid decision anyway to re-locate the BBC studios in Salford, what was the point?

[AB Editor]

"i doubt that Manchester is much cheaper than the capital"

LOL - why do you doubt it? It's dirt cheap up there!

[AB Editor]

To take the cost burden of "hard working families" like you Dave - they'll be paying local labour rates which will be cheaper in the long run.

[emmie]

doesn't look cheap?

http://www.propertywide.co.uk/buy/search/Manchester?gclid=CLOSi7j1mroCFbQetAodlm0AVw&referrer=google-ppc

[emmie]

some of the reasons for the move, but it's a colossal waste of money, and as been pointed out that many guests will not want to schlep up the motorway to Salford, unless of course they are in Corrie or a show based there, but that can't include those required to run the country... otherwise they simply use videolink

http://www.theguardian.com/media/bbc-salford-move

[andy-hughes]

It's interesting that the media (London-centric of course) always refers to the BBC's 'northern' HQ as being in 'Manchester' - which implies a level of sophistication, albeit nothing like as posh as the one they all live in.

In fact, the new HQ is in Salford, which is a city in its own right, and to be fair, not the salubrious suburban dream sold to employees by their masters.

The notion that moving outside London suddenly makes the BBC all-inclusive is, of course, a nonsense.

It appears that no lessons were learned from the siting of 'Richard and Judy' in its original incarnation - Liverpool.

The programme makers soon found it next to impossible to get high-calibre guests to shelp up the motorway to 'the north', so they did the sensible thing, and relocated the show to London.

The BBC, in their wisdom, have gone the opposite way, at obscene expense, of which the relocation farago highlighted by youngmafbog is only a part.

London is not the centre of the universe - unless you work in the media.

[DrFilth]

VHG >
If a person has their own boat or plane for example then the BBC may well have to pay for this to be moved in the cost of the move. <

manchester has two airports , a big un and a little one so they could have flown up
manchester has some nice canals and the new bbc dump is on the side of the ship canal so they could sail up north

[andy-hughes]

I used to freelance for my local BBC Radio station at the start of my writing career.

The overwhemlimg attitude that pervades the organsation is that they are above everything and everyone else.

I honestly believe that the actual concept of 'spending money' does not feature in the daily lives of BBC employees - they simply ask, and it is given.

Meals, hotels, taxis, trainfairs, airfairs, houses - they all just appear as if the fairies bring them, so the idea that they are actually spending money which does not belong to them, but with which they are entrusted to spend properly, simply does not occur to them.

Until a proper system of accountability - starting with the Trustees and working down - is implemented, then this situation will continue.

Sadly, the people who would be able to enforce such a system, are the MP's, and it is utterly familiar to them becausre they live and act and spend in exactly the same way, so no need to change anything as far as they can see.