BBC cuts executive salary spending
By politics.co.uk staff
The BBC will cut the amount it spends on the salaries of its 650 senior managers by 25 per cent over the next three and a half years.
The corporation appears to wish to cut posts, rather than the level of income, with estimates of an 18 per cent reduction in senior posts by 2013.
The current pay freeze and suspension of bonuses will continue, the BBC Trust confirmed.
BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said: “Mark Thompson [director general] and his team have responded with a comprehensive set of proposals that strike the right balance between ensuring the BBC can attract the best people to do the job, while ensuring maximum value for the licence fee payer.
“Of course I realise this will have implications both for current and future BBC employees. However, it is right that, as a major public service organisation, the BBC shows leadership on this issue during difficult economic times.”
Liberal Democrat media spokesman Don Foster welcomed the move.
“These latest cuts show that the BBC is taking its commitment to reduce expenditure seriously,” he said.
“This hard-nosed approach is exactly the right approach. The BBC must show that it is listening to licence fee payers and not wasting public money.”
