Lord Patten hints at pay cuts for BBC executives

BBC Trust chairman said BBC managers’ ‘toxic’ salaries were unpopular with viewers and licence fee payers Lord Patten, the BBC Trust chairman, has hinted at pay cuts for senior executives at the corporation. Lord Patten said BBC managers “toxic” salaries were unpopular with viewers and licence fee payers ahead of announcements BBC salaries. “There are four aspects which we will be making announcements about in the next few days,” he said. “First of all there’s the pay level at the very top; secondly there’s the number of people who get more than £150,000 ; thirdly there’s the number of people who are deemed to be senior managers; and fourthly there’s the whole issue of fairness across the board, with senior managers getting some deals which don’t apply to others. “We can deal with all that and if we do so, we will deal with one of the most toxic reasons for the public’s lack of sympathy with the BBC as an institution, even though they like enormously what it does.” Lord (Chris) Patten, Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong and a former Conservative party chairman, hailed research by Will Hutton of the Work Foundation into a government proposal to limit top public servants’ pay to no more than 20 times that of their lowest paid staff. Speaking to BBC1′s Andrew Marr Show, Lord Patten said: “I will be looking very closely at what Will Hutton said about top pay in the public sector – there were some very good ideas.” He added: “You look at the relationship between top pay and median pay and I would like the BBC to be the first organisation in the public sector which gets into implementing some of Will Hutton’s ideas.” Lord Patten took over as chairman of the trust – the corporation’s governing body and charged with protecting licence fee payers’ interests – in May and today said he wanted a “more flexible, leaner” BBC, “aware of the principles on which it was founded”. He said it was “a fantastic organisation”, but said it should “take out a lot of costs” and learn to live within its £3.5bn budget, funded by the £145.50 licence fee. “We are looking at how much we can get through greater efficiencies, through greater productivity and how much will involve us stopping doing things we would like to do but which are probably expendable.” He said channel and station closures were possible, but praised the much-criticised BBC3 which screens shows such as World’s Craziest Fools, Don’t Tell the Bride and Kids Behind Bars. Lord Patten BBC BBC Trust guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 3, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.