Office management

Peter Salmon, Director of North (and probably East, West and South-excluding-London) has blogged about the latest NAO review of the BBC's move to Salford Quays.

The papers have highlighted the scale of the relocation costs. No-one has made much of this para, in the changing budget of the project.

In February 2011, the BBC Trust approved an increase in the budgeted lifetime cost for the project in cash terms, from £876 million to £942 million. The increase was owing largely to the addition of £126 million following the BBC’s decision in 2010 to establish a head office unit and other central services at Salford, a £63 million increase for additional technology and a £28 million increase in estimated utility costs. The combined impact of adding these costs and updating other estimates increased the total gross lifetime cost by £238 million to £1,114 million (Figure 11 overleaf). The addition of these costs addressed a recommendation we made in our 2010 report for the BBC to ensure that all lifetime costs are included in business cases.

Peter was appointed Director, BBC North at the end of 2008. The budget line for the "head office unit" has now been reduced by £45m. But if you divide the remaining £81 million pounds over the twenty years from 2010 to 2030,  it still means it costs over £4m a year to run the Salford "head office" and central services.