"I've been in the job for two and half years, and the issue was how long did I want to carry on. That's what it all boiled down to". Richard Deverell in May last year, when he decided to move on from his role as Chief Operating Officer, BBC North.
We've tracked Richard's itchy feet before, here. And there is some small pleasure in the fact that, despite his involvement in "major projects", his package, admittedly a healthy £233k, does seem to have stayed frozen, unlike others.
What does his departure tell us about the sale of TVC ? Richard says "The W12 project came to a natural point just before Christmas where the three big questions have been answered and it is now about quite granular legal and property details being worked out."
The intention to sell TVC was first mooted in 2007, with the formal tender process starting in June last year. The first sniff that the White City site was also available to offers came in September. Since then, we've had leaks that Google, Stanhope and Argent may be interested, and spins of prices up to £300m for TVC. My curmudgeonly estimate was £30m. The problem is that all the bidders want the BBC to stay on site in some form, and contribute to the costs of the development; the BBC has a capital borrowing limit of £200m, and is unlikely to want to up that. I suspect it's not just lawyers trying to work something out; posh banks are probably trying to create some fancy finance vehicle before a deal emerges - and, like all PFI variants, it'll be (quite deliberately) hard to work out who's paid who what for Television Centre.
- I am reminded that the last time "Richard Deverell" and "Ofcom" came up together in news search engines, it was for the regulator's imposition of its first cash fine on the BBC: £50k for Blue Peter, when Deverell was Controller, Children's.
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