Downing Street – BBC needs to explain £11m pay increase

Jason Mohammad

Downing Street has called on the BBC to explain why staffing costs have increased by £11m despite the Corporation saying it cannot afford to fund TV licences for the over-75s.

Yesterday the BBC published a list of on-air talent – excluding those paid by BBC Studios – who earn more than £150k, as part of its Annual Report. The figures covered the period from April 2018 to March 2019 and showed that the total talent bill had risen £11m to £159m.

The number of stars earning more than £150,000 – so more than the Prime Minister – had gone up from 64 to 75. Last month the Corporation announced that it would be means testing free TV licences for the over-75s.

Gary Lineker was at the top of the pay list on £1.75m, while a number of the BBC’s stars had significant increases. BBC Sport and BBC Wales presenter Jason Mohammad (above), broke into the list of the top 10 highest earners with a £95,000 pay rise to £355,000.

The Prime Minster’s official spokesman said: “As a public service broadcaster funded by the licence fee, the BBC has a responsibility to lead the way in promoting workplace equality.

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“We welcome the progress made but the BBC themselves admit there is much more to do. At the same time the BBC needs to explain why they increased the on-air pay and total staffing costs while saying they can’t fund free TV licences for over-75s.

“As the PM has made clear, taxpayers expect the BBC to use its substantial licence fee income in an appropriate way to make sure it delivers for UK audiences, which includes showing restraint on salaries for senior staff.”

In response, a BBC spokeswoman said: “Staff numbers are up not least because the Government gave us more money to expand the World Service – and we can’t do that without extra people.

“Beyond that, we have also spent more on our programmes – which is good for audiences – but we’ve still managed to reduce the proportion of our content budget that we spend on talent. The average pay of those on the talent list is actually falling, and the cost of our top 10 highest earners is down by nearly 10% since last year.

“Above all, it’s well known that the BBC pays less than people can earn at commercial broadcasters. The National Audit Office report said this recently. And when we ask audiences, four out of five people tell us they want the biggest and best names on the BBC.”

The TaxPayers’ Alliance, which opposes the BBC licence fee, criticised the increases.

Harry Fone, grassroots campaign manager for the Alliance, said: “After announcing that many pensioners will now be forced to pay the dreaded TV tax, you’d think the BBC would have shown more respect to taxpayers by cutting back on unnecessary spending.

“How can the BBC justify giving so many sky-high salaries – that most licence-fee payers can only dream of – when whacking up charges on older people?”

BBC chairman Sir David Clementi dismissed the suggestion that the BBC could fund free TV licences for over-75s by cutting the pay of stars.

“The sums don’t add up,” he said. “It is clear in this report that even if we employed no stars paid more than £150,000… that would save around £20 million, a fraction of the £745 million a year and rising we would need if we extended the concession to all.”

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